Cloud9 wins LoL Championship Series Spring Split after six-year title drought

Despite not competing in a live venue, Cloud9 turned heads with a historic win 

Graphics by Saii Shah | Source photo from Twitter

After six years of coming out of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) without a title, North American team Cloud9 finally won the Spring Split championship, sweeping FlyQuest with a 3-0 win. Despite not having a live venue to host the championship amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the teams competed remotely and fans from all over the world expressed their support online. 

Formed in 2013, Cloud9 has since made their mark as a professional esports team in the League of Legends (LoL) community after making it to the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Championship and the first North American team to reach the semifinals since season one of the World Championship. With their last LCS title in 2014, fans began to doubt Cloud9 when they had to say goodbye to Zacary “Sneaky” Scuderi in January this year, the last player from that winning lineup. However, the current lineup pulled off a startling surprise with the team investing in new players who have displayed exceptional skill and teamwork this season.

Launched in 2013, the LCS is the official top-tier esports league for LoL in North America franchised by the game’s developer Riot Games. The entire starting lineup of Cloud9 secured the first seed for the LCS playoffs with a historic 17-1 record in the regular season. The team’s dominant run impressed fans and spectators alike, so it wasn’t a surprise that the starting lineup was voted the best in their respective positions by the LCS broadcast team, third-party media, and even the pro teams. Overjoyed from their exceptional win, Cloud9 broke their trophy minutes after their celebration.

Cloud9 made history by dropping just two games at this year’s Spring Split and capturing their first title since 2014. Support Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme was named Player of the Week on Mar. 30 while jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang was crowned the Honda Most Valuable Player with teammates mid laner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer and bot laner Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen coming in at second and third place after the championship on Apr. 20. Head coach Hangyu Bok (better known as Reapered) was also named the Coach of the Split.