Tomorrow Cloud 9 and Phoenix 1 will face each other for the third time this 2017 Spring Split to determine who will go on into the North American LCS Final. Both these teams are extremely familiar with each other because of the way the end of regular season was scheduled. The most recent match between them came in week 9, and if we decided the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final match from the week 9 match result, then Cloud 9 will win the playoff series with convincing fashion. However, we cannot forget how Phoenix 1 defeated Cloud 9 in week 5 with a 2-0 victory off the back of Meteos, the former C9 jungler. Meteos played his heart out to prove to his former team that he still had plenty of quality play left in his pro career.
In order to understand how each team can win the semi-finals match, we have to look at each of the previous matches between these two playoff teams. Cloud 9 over the entire season has been a mid focused team, and they relied heavily on Jensen to carry the team. C9’s high usage of Jensen can be seen in the season statistics; while looking at the league season statistics, Jensen ranked first in kills compared to the entire league at 214 kills total and he finished with a 70% kill participation rate. Throughout the LCS regular season, the jungler for C9, Contractz, was always near mid lane to support Jensen. Most other teams would fail in mid ganks because Contractz was always close to assist and turn the opponent’s gank around. Cloud 9's win condition: focus mid lane and get Jensen a lead to carry the game. Once C9 had a lead over their opponents, they would win a high percentage of their games . Playing from behind was not C9’s best quality, and when they did fall behind, their win rate falls to a mediocre record. The question for the rest of the North American LCS was how to beat Cloud 9, especially early, and “Dark Meteos” knew the answer.
Phoenix 1 won the first match of the regular season because Meteos was proactive in ganking, especially for his mid laner, Ryu. Early in the games Meteos would force the summoner spells of Jensen, C9’s mid laner, with well timed ganks to mid lane. Once Jensen’s summoners were on cool down, Meteos would simply return for another mid lane gank and secure a kill for himself or Ryu. The first blood for Phoenix 1 was all the team needed to snow ball the small lead into a victory. Meteos, a former teammate of Jensen, knew how C9 wanted to play each game, and made sure Contractz was else where on the map before ganking Jensen’s lane. By focusing on the mid lane, Meteos was able to kill or assist in Jensen’s death; therefore, stifling the Cloud 9 win condition. The games that P1 won in the regular season over C9 were due to Meteos’ understanding of Jensen and his partner in crime, Contractz.
The final battle between these two juggernaut teams will not be decided by Meteos directly. Meteos’ jungle teammate, Inori, is slated to start the first game of the semi-finals playoff. Inori has been the team’s primary jungler for the 2017 Spring Split, and Meteos was added to the team mid way through the split. Inori must learn from the success of Meteos against C9 to ensure a win over NA’s 2nd ranked team. Mid lane pressure is the only way Phoenix 1 has ever beat Cloud 9. If C9 is able to dictate the game through Jensen, P1 will lose the playoff series. If Inori does not play up to the team’s expectations, will P1 substitute in favor of Meteos and hope for another week 5 winning outcome? Will Cloud 9 dominate the game through mid lane? I put my money on Jensen and Contractz.
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