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REGRET, CHANGE, AND THE CHASE FOR CLOUD9

Summer is a period where everything things, and right now what's Cloud9.

The largest storylines entering Summer would be Doublelift's yield to TSM and push against each team to close the substantial gap which Cloud9 created at the Spring. Following is a peek at a couple of things driving these groups and how that intersects with all the new-format Summer Split which allows you reverse all of your Spring failures.

SAME OLD DOUBLELIFT

Nowadays, a great deal of people I speak to mention the fantastic mental exhaustion most of us seem to confront. It may make otherwise simple tasks such as folding laundry or going to the supermarket feel like scaling a mountain. That small voice which asks"does anything even matter?" Is, to me, among those unlucky backdrops of summertime. And when Uzi declared his retirement, I felt sorrow for the way his body withered down even though he is just in his 20s. However, I thought of a number of the famous images of himlike the one where he's hunched in front of a TV in tears because he sees the group that just beat him provide a winner meeting. I thought of the headlines that followed every collapse. And I thought about this immense mental relief which must have accompanied the physical pain of slipping.

We're quick to discuss the physical aspect of the game and slow or completely prevent it when the psychological aspect comes to perform with. I inquired Doublelift around Uzi and concerning the gap in reception to somebody being physically drained and being emotionally tired, and he states,"You can't really argue with physical exhaustion because there's literally a limit before your body gives out. But if it's mental exhaustion, a lot of people can view it as a copout when you say 'I'm burnt out' or I mentally don't have the gall, drive, or motivation right now. People will just say, 'Suck it up.' It just seems a lot less real because it can be used as a copout for someone who's just not playing well, but I think -- as someone who's obviously experienced it -- very real."

He proceeds,"Someone like Uzi, who I respect a ton, I think he must have experienced both honestly. I don't think it was only purely physical. You can't really be giving it that same level of pure dedication the entire time. There's going to be times where he's mentally exhausted too."

What is going to happen today that Doublelift has returned into TSM is that the largest spotlight will glow. I really don't expect folks to look at him with compassion for shooting his foot off the pedal at the spring -- he's confessed it to be a mistake and apologized for this. It doesn't change what happened, however, so individuals do not need to take the apology. That is fine, also. I really don't anticipate the story to be more forgiving now that he's returned and left to TSM. If anything it is going to be vicious. I really don't anticipate them to be the exact same championship-caliber staff the last time that he had been here, but I do not anticipate that mild to dim once.

I really do believe him when he says that he had been coping with burnout last divide. I really do believe that he did not just suddenly drop off a cliff into a stage where he could no more come back to being the best player in the league, and I believe him if he tells me,"I realized in this transition to TSM, the thing I really want and what makes me really excited is the thought of winning with this roster." I feel that winning fixes everything -- if just because people are quick to overlook.

Nonetheless, there's absolutely no delusion like the previous time that he joined TSM he is the victim . With much more championships than hands on a hand, his livelihood might end today and he would be one most decorated player in the history of this league. I am not requesting compassion for him. He is not either. I am simply considering sorrow and all of the ways it can attest. A group towards a participant's death, or vice versa. An entire profession of missteps or what-if measures. I'm considering how some folks, such as Doublelift, are granted opportunities. A lot of that he got and others he didn't. Some, such as Uzi at this time, aren't. And I think, if they're"fair" or not, Doublelift consistently does something with his or her chances. That is why they keep coming.

TESTIMONIALS

Spring Split's Cloud9 submitted a cumulative 26-2 document, which had been the very best in LCS history. I requested players from every group to provide me their ideas on C9:

"In my mind, there were only three teams that were that far ahead of everyone else. It would be Immortals in 2016 with Huni and Reignover, TSM in 2016 Summer, and then Cloud9 [now]. It's really exciting because there's actually a real challenge -- an attainable goal as an underdog now, and it makes me really motivated to practice." -- Doublelift

"I think Cloud9 during the Spring Split was just on a different level from all the other teams, including us. We just didn't understand the fundamentals as well as they did. They just really understood how they wanted to play the game, and towards the end of the split we struggled with how we wanted to play it." -- Svenskeren

"I think for C9 compared to every other team, they have a proper coaching staff and know how to play as a five man unit. They help each other, whereas other teams have people who don't improve during the split." -- Johnsun

"Everything we do needs to ask --'Is what we're doing great enough to conquer C9?' We have to compare everything we do to if it will matter against C9, because that's the level of competition we need to strive to every day, and if we do that for the entire split, then we have a really good chance to win." -- Solo

"Cloud9 has Top 2 players in every role -- they're all good individually. They're just a team that's willing to sacrifice for each other. They have a really solid team identity where they play around mid/jungle and transition that to bot lane. Licorice is really good at weak side and strong side -- they're just really well-rounded and play well as a team." -- FBI

"I feel like we kind of went blow for blow with them in our last game of the Spring Split, but I'm pretty sure they're a step ahead, even right now. They're all just individually really good and really smart about what they want to do. Their teamwork is really good and they're just hot right now." -- Pobelter

"I think all of C9's players are motivated and have the same end game. When you look at even the Solo Queue rankings, most of them are Top 10 [or at least high]. It's still pretty difficult to hit Rank 1 [especially] and I think Zven has a really good mentality when he plays Solo Queue. He always tries hard and plays to win -- a lot of people, even for me, if something goes bad I sometimes quit in Solo Queue. But I think it's a good mindset to put 100% into winning and think each game matters. You need to have that same mentality for scrims as well." -- Altec

"I definitely felt like C9 was way more dominant than every other team. I don't know if they were more dominant than us when we were winning, but it definitely felt like they were head and shoulders above every other team. Playing against them was a struggle because they played so fast and they were all on the same page -- they had really good coordination when it came to everything." -- Jensen

"From what we've heard from the players, they have a really good system. They have gym everyday, healthy food, and apparently even a book club -- they do all these different wellness things. A good esports system doesn't need to be too complicated -- it just needs to have health, exercise, and a good practice schedule." -- Stunt

"I would prefer if there was someone in the league who could actually [challenge us]. All of these teams are saying they are going to do it or that's what they're looking for, but honestly they're just not good enough. At least not yet. They're pretty much all talk. Hopefully they'll be able to perform better and actually be able to contend against us -- that's what I really want. It'd be good for us to go into Worlds with another team that we can learn from throughout the split." -- Blaber

BE THE CHANGE

"This is actually the first team I've been on in my entire career that has kept the same roster twice in a row, and I've been playing for years," states Stunt. "Just the smallest roster change can throw team synergy out the window -- a good example recently was TL with the introduction of Samira Probuilds over Xmithie. I felt like Xmithie kept their playstyle of playing around bottom. They had a clear identity and they were good at what they did, and without Xmithie, they're kind of lost and trying to find themselves again."

He's"For us, the benefit of keeping the same roster is you don't have to start from the basics. With just one new member, that new member has to learn all of your systems from square one, whereas we already have our systems in place for how we like to play the game, and all we have to do is build on it and figure out what the problems are with what we are doing right now. We have a really strong baseline."

I have spent a great deal of time this offseason considering when and how roster changes make sense -- a great deal of it comes off the heels of, as Stunt said, what occurred to TL. 1 thing I've always thought to be accurate and is endorsed by outcomes is that really great teams -- I am speaking about individuals who triumph Worlds or could/should have won Worlds (hello, ROX lovers ) -- have more or less been dominant from the instant moment they had been shaped. Occasionally they fade and wither away, sure, but they do not begin by fighting.

What we have from the LCS at this time is 1 group in Cloud9 who had been assembled this past year and instantly destroyed the competition from the gate. A good deal of people suggested the LCS was complete weaker from the Spring, however, the league as a whole was not that bad -- that they were all obviously worse than Cloud9. So just how are you supposed to close the gap with no daring change (such as a roster movement ) if C9 is constantly advancing too? Regrettably, there is no actual guarantee a roster change will get the job done. I really don't have stats on this but I guess the likelihood of getting worse are also fairly large, particularly if you were a good team to start with (2nd place FLY who didn't change, as an instance, has far more space below them than previously ).

Not altering a roster allows you build foundational blocks for exactly what a fantastic procedure and routine is -- both for daily rituals such as sleeping and eating (which players have a tendency to fail ) and also for in-game matters such as how much you desire to reevaluate ancient scuttle control or the way you wish to reevaluate counterpick when drafting. There simply is not a definitive answer to whether you should or should not alter a roster. Finally if a roster change was bad or good will come down to the consequences -- that is how we have always guessed them, whether that is reasonable or not.

Liquid, by way of instance, was memed fairly difficult for falling if they earned Broxah (then Tactical, then again if Doublelift returned), making you believe that they made the incorrect move. But that is just in a vacuum in which their aim was to win the LCS again. In the larger context of needing to acquire Worlds, possibly they had struck their ceiling Xmithie -- at the point you must create a change regardless of how it ends up. Only by risking becoming worse will you get much better. The needle has changed considerably for Liquid, however, after only 1 split. Doublelift is gone for good, and that's their lengthy perch atop the LCS.

Jensen states,"Being the team that always wins or is expected to win doesn't feel as good. It's hard to stay on top because within NA, it's hard to learn a lot from the practice because even if you lose, you think,'Oh, we are better than those. This was just an off day.' I think a lot of my teammates felt that last split. We were too comfortable with our position. This time around, I can't imagine we'll make the same mistake because we realize we're just like any other team right now. We shouldn't feel ahead of them. We'll start playing more like the underdog and playing with the mindset that we have to learn from any team because we just had a 9th place finish."

All it requires is 1 split to completely alter your strategy. Pobelter, as an instance, didn't have a team at the start of last fans and split (who formerly clamored for his benching) discovered it to be totally outrageous that he did not have work. He then came in to get a dead-last CLG group and has been showered with possibly more compliments than at any point in his profession. He explained,"I have not felt better than those few scanty little wins we got last split. Those were some great hits of dopamine." That is crazy for me to place those unnecessary wins on precisely the exact same amount as the championships he had won previously, but I do not doubt it for a moment.

Everybody wants to win even when their motives for needing it are likely to disagree, and in sports which means somebody else will lose. It's this simultaneous moment in which you secure your fantasy by denying somebody else, just as climbing to the starting lineup for a single player usually means another player needs to step down. This split will comprise nine teams jumping as large as they can to reach Cloud9, and when I will be honest with you, I do not believe any of them are going to make it.

However, Summer has ever been the split at which you are able to correct all of your Spring wrongs, also this season that's even more conspicuous. Nothing you did at the Spring things in the meaning that the things do not bring about Worlds placements in any way. And yet, still, that which you did things. Or everything you did not do. Nobody could tell Doublelift the Spring Split which saw him depart for TSM did not matter, even though he sang a different song at the beginning of it. Nobody could tell Cloud9 the dominance they embodied and heard does not matter because of their Summer planning. Even though, by creating the Summer yours and yours, you may earn all that regardless of. There's only this, right today.

[camilleprobuilds]

On the Brink of Losing A Moment

C9 and TSM hit on the Rift for among the Greatest stakes Games in LCS history. C9 could lose all of it.

The last time I spoke to some buddy in person was over five weeks ago. I have locked myself to the 1 mile radius around my flat, venturing up to the Ralph's to pickup markets. There, I am just two blocks from the subway, which is just a forty-five second ride to everywhere in Los Angeles. It is a surreal moment that resembles a balloon being gradually inflated, and I am waiting and watching for it to popup. Only it does.

Back in April, as Cloud9 attracted the brunt of the weight back on the FlyQuest Nexus to procure a 3-0 sweep at the LCS Spring Finals, you can observe a concentrated Licorice on his participant camera tear his headset off in pleasure. Seconds after a C9 team member storms the area with a bowl of confetti he throws throughout the area, and he's followed by a couple more staff members, such as proprietor Jack who's carrying a decoration. There's not any thunderous applause from an audience of tens of thousands. The sound does not echo off the scene's dome roof. You do not find the dejected faces of their FLY members. It is, rather, very silent. This is our lives last five months.

Following that, we saw as Covid-19 uprooted what we took for granted as being ordinary, and gradually, but surely, an increasing number of events were postponed or cancelled. This comprised this season's Mid-Season Invitational, in which Cloud9 could have progressed to for the very first time in franchise history (that can be a very mad fact considering they have literally never overlooked Worlds). They have been a group that turned it in the summertime, making their slip in the previous month so shocking. It is a reverse-results sort of season for C9, just they were not rewarded using the MSI excursion in the Spring.

And today we're one Best-of-5 from seeing their entire year entirely with no single global excursion to show for this. This is a Cloud9 roster which started the year off on a 35-2 and seemed nigh unstoppable. They posted the best single season winning percentage in the Spring and opened on a 9-0 tear at the summer that had us asking not if they would win but by how much. Losing here could be catastrophic, but maybe it could be a fitting metaphor for the way the year has performed beyond the Rift.

Cloud9 losing could be, in some ways for me personally, a soda up. The entire fanbase will be wrested from their perch, where it felt as though they had been watching the best group NA has ever generated, and you would begin to wonder exactly how much of the season was real. I know I've been asking that question on a virtually daily basis. It seems just like not Cloud9 that has dropped all of these games in the previous month but a bogus team sporting inexpensive Halloween costumes of C9. Gone would be the huge snowballs out of Blaber from the first game. Gone would be the 3k gold prospects at 15minutes that ballooned to a 10k gold guide just 10 minutes afterwards. Gone was Zven's 100+ KDA and gone was Nisqy's omnipresence on the map.

Instead they would find themselves facechecking bushes to protect against the enemy group from procuring a Dragon Soul. They would find themselves outnumbered in a skirmish since they were slow into a drama, and they would discover that the very same opponents they had beaten into submission in the Spring were now striking back. I have stared at the screen in disbelief over once this divide since Cloud9 floundered. I am sure they have also. It seems like we're on the verge of being robbed of a minute, and the second isn't one which has transpired but one which never did.

We got to observe a summit Cloud9 this season take on the likes of G2 Esports or even JDG. Lately, Broxah said in an interview he was sick of seeing individuals concentrate on the drawbacks when searching at the very best teams in NA, and while I agree with him, it wasn't actually something we found with C9's achievement. We concentrated mostly on the positives there, and any warning was tied to NA's history of collapse compared to what C9 really looked like. I had not been this eager to see a NA team on the global stage in a very long time -- not because the first iteration of Cloud9 -- and in this stage it sort of feels as though we are not around to eliminate a minute but instead we have.

They could go to take down TSM this weekend and it won't be exactly the exact same. They would need to go on a complete tear -- a 9-0 blazing ball of anger directly to a repeat name -- to recapture that magical, and even then you would enter Worlds knowing they have fought this season. You understand they could battle again. As soon as you're scratched for the first time, and also the scar sticks, then you do not have to become invincible again.

Nonetheless, there's a part of me who has not fully come to terms with Cloud9 being on the edge of elimination, only as I have not come completely to terms of losing the normalcy of the previous five months for this outbreak. It does not feel fair whatsoever to have lost some of this, but we are, also for Cloud9, at least, all their battles could be washed out for today using one Bo5 win within their oldest rival. We may have lost summit C9 once and for all, but they do not need to be summit Cloud9 to triumph on Saturday. And then -- who's to say what's going to happen ahead? Nothing about this season has made feel, however for C9, perhaps particularly if they were winning, it wasn't about making sense.

[camilleprobuilds]

The Penta - Top Plays | Aiming for a Pentakill