Winning ugly is better than losing, but in Cloud9 Kia’s case, that might as well be the same thing.
Cloud9 Kia survived with a 3-2 victory against RED Canids in the Americas Cup lower-bracket semi-finals on Thursday at Riot Games Arena São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil.
It wasn’t a battle of who could make a winning play, but rather who would make the losing play.
“I think the series was very low level, to be honest, from both teams,” Cloud 9 attack-damage carry/bottom laner Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen said. “Both teams played really terrible today.”
The win keeps Cloud9 alive in the Americas Cup, and they await their opponent in the lower-bracket finals.
For Svenningsen, that’s a secondary concern.
Cloud9 isn’t thinking about its next opponent for Saturday or even if they’ll play Sunday. Rather, they’re focused on doing some soul-searching as to why they haven’t been playing their best.
‘Back to Square One’
Svenningsen was blunt when asked about Cloud9’s struggles.
“We were kind of the same team two months ago as we are now,” he said. “Same issues, same struggles. But other teams are better than they were before.”
Cloud9 rolled through the North American League Championship Series Lock-In. They lost one game on the way to earning a berth in the LCS Finals.
But the six weeks leading up to March 1 were a smokescreen, hiding issues that lingered beneath the surface.
The 3-1 loss to LYON in the LCS Final was the first sign that things weren’t completely ideal for Cloud9. But even then, they still had an out – LYON is led by jungler Kacper “Inspired” Słoma, perpetual thorn in Cloud9’s side.
“Throughout the entire spring split, we were not actually that good despite winning all our games,” Svenningsen said.
If the loss to LYON was just a glimpse into how well the team was actually playing, Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to FURIA was eye-opening.
Some tried to give Cloud9 another out: jet lag and short turnaround. They played in a high-stakes final on Sunday, got on a plane and flew to Brazil, and played two matches on consecutive days.
But throughout the past two days, all members shot down this notion, refusing to even acknowledge that it could be the reason why the struggles showed up on Wednesday, but, again clouded by winning, not on Thursday.
“It’s not like ideal conditions for us, but we shouldn’t be blaming jet lag. I don’t think it’s affecting us that much,” Cloud9 jungler Robert “blaber” Huang said. “We made very similar mistakes today [against Red Canids] as we did yesterday [against FURIA]. ... Like in Game 1, we should have lost, they just kind of threw versus us and we were getting behind in the early game.
“We're just making very dumb mistakes right now.”
So, what is wrong? Svenningsen rolled off numerous reasons, but it looped to one thing: team identity.
“Recently, I feel like we’ve lost our way. We don’t really know what we’re good at or what we’re bad at,” he said. “We need to really sit down and have a talk about how we want to play as a team and how we want to draft. What kind of team we want to be, because we don’t really know.”
A Rock in the Chaos
Top laner Seung-gyu “Thanatos” Park has been a stabilizing force amid the search for its identity.
Park was vital in the win against RED Canids, earning most valuable player honors and dominating the closeout game.
“Thank you Thanatos for Game 5. He was smurfing for us,” Huang said. “He’s been playing well, so it’s nice.”
Park, in the Americas Cup and during the LCS, averaged 2.33 kills per game and 4.08 assists with a 3.02 KDA (Kill/Death/Assist Ratio, which is one metric used to judge individual performance). He also averages 563.5 damage per minute (overall damage output, another metric of individual performance) with a kill participation (how often he contributes to player removal) of 48.7 percent.
“No matter what happens in top lane, he will always be fine,” Svenningsen said. “He will always almost be even in bad matchups and winning hard in good matchups.”
He added that Thanatos’ versatility — his ability to play a wide range of characters at a high level — gives Cloud9 flexibility in drafting.
“He’s improving every single day,” Svenningsen said. “It’s always nice and comfortable to have someone on your team that always does well in every game.”
One Day to Figure It Out
Cloud9 has Friday dedicated to practice, video review, but, more importantly, rest – both physically and mentally.
“Take a breather,” he said. “Even if it’s only one day, it’s still good.”
Saturday’s match will be against either Cloud9’s LCS counterpart Sentinels or CBLOL’s FURIA. Cloud9 coach Nicholas “Inero” Smith views the opportunity to get another match as beneficial.
“High-pressure games are good,” he said. “Any amount of games we can play and work on our issues is always positive.”
One day probably won’t solve all the improvements Cloud9 needs to make, but even if it takes them one step closer to reaching that potential, it will have been worth it.
But, at the very least, Cloud9 knows what they’re looking for.
“It’s kind of back to square one for us,” Svenningsen said.
Paul Delos Santos covers the Fighting Game Community and Riot Games ecosystem for The Sporting Tribune and Inside Esports, a newsletter publishing every Tuesday and Friday. Subscribe at insideesports.media.
