Cloud9 vs FlyQuest

The first clash of the second round of the playoffs is finally here and, needless to say, it's quite a doozy: Cloud9 vs. FlyQuest! This is not only a match-up between two Top 3 teams but also a repeat of the 2020 Spring Split finals. If that doesn't get your blood running, odds are, nothing else will.

This is about as entertaining and alluring a match as the LCS can offer at this point in time. Heck, even Team Liquid -- a team that is statistically better than both -- is far less impressive in certain areas of play, especially when it comes to entertainment value. They're much slower, more passive and reactive, whereas Cloud9 and FlyQuest often throw caution out the window ("controlled chaos") and adhere to the current meta that favors a bit of lunacy and non-stop skirmishing.

That's perhaps not the most apt way to describe them as it indicates a lack of macro and clean play which is certainly not the case. Both line-ups are brimming with talent and experience, and they're using to playing on the razor's edge, always teetering between danger and dishing out insane amounts of damage and making the right plays at a safe distance. They're exceptional at what they do right, and even though there are many similarities between them, they're still vastly different when it comes to how they set up plays and how they want their games to unfold.

On the one hand, we have Cloud9, arguably the most dominant champion the LCS has ever seen. We're talking dominant not in terms of time but rather of decisiveness. This line-up has "just" a single title to its name but the fashion in which it steamrolled through the entire region last split left no one indifferent. But their dominance -- incredible thought it was -- didn't last as long as people expected. Team Liquid quickly bounced back in equally impressive fashion, reclaiming the number one spot once the regular portion of the split concluded. Cloud9, on the other hand, fumbled and failed in the most unexpected of ways. Their drafts were bad, they had a confusing tendency to prioritize what wasn't meta and what didn't inherently adhere to their strengths, they made more mistakes individually and their teamplay regressed as well. And, frankly, no one's quite sure why. The meta didn't shift (at least not for it to matter much), and Cloud9 still had all the right tools to win and yet they no longer worked as well. Blaber, in particular, was their biggest and most potent catalyst in the early game but his champion pool isn't such a good fit these days. He's just not as impactful as he was in Spring, and while we're talking nuances here they do end up stacking and making a world of difference. He's no longer creating mind-blowing leads and then dispersing them across the map to the rest of his team. He's also a binary kind of player. When Cloud9 is ahead, Blaber will play without fear or reserve. When Cloud9 is even, Blaber will still play in the exact same way. But when Cloud9 is behind, when they need to slow down and think about their win condition and weather the storm, Blaber can still be seen running down a lane like a headless chicken, trying to brute force his way to victory even though he no longer has the agency or the tools to do so.

That's what happens when you've been dominating for so long that you forget that, sometimes, you need to take a step back and try a different route. Furthermore, Nisqy -- one of Cloud9's most important players -- has been utterly neutralized over the last couple of weeks. Again, the mid lane meta didn't change, but his playstyle *did*. Nisqy stood out last split because of his ability to roam and impact the map mere minutes after spawning on the Summoner's Rift. It didn't matter which champion he was on nor whom he was up against and he often decided to forego the laning phase in favor of his team. He didn't care about any laning records or his creep score differential as long as it made his team stronger as a whole -- and boy did it ever. But this is no longer the case. Other players adapted, and while it took them long enough, they certainly got there. Teams are now constantly pressuring Nisqy from the moment the game begins in an effort to force him to stay put, and it's working wonders.

With both players "underperforming", it's easy to understand why Cloud9 didn't look particularly impressive over the last couple of weeks. They're used to winning through a certain set of ways and they're no longer as potent, for a wide variety of reasons. Still, this is the same old Cloud9 that blew our minds on a weekly basis -- further proven by the fact that they went 9-0 in the first half of Summer. They still have all the right tools for the job and they had a couple of weeks to recuperate, work on their biggest flaws, and prepare for FlyQuest and this Best of 5 that should, by all means, be one of the most entertaining clashes of the year.

Speaking of FlyQuest, they are by no means a pushover, but rather a top-tier challenger that's more than worthy of everyone's respect and admiration. In fact, they looked far better than the boys in black and blue over the last couple of weeks, and they know it, too. FlyQuest is a sound, well-rounded team that's fully aware of its biggest strengths, and they're always focusing on all the right things, doubling down on their strengths and doing what is necessary to get ahead. They're obviously one of the best teams in North America, but there's been a very interesting asterisk next to their 2020 run: they always lost to Cloud9. That holds true for both Spring as well as Summer. Whenever these two teams fought, Cloud9 outclassed and demolished FlyQuest like they were a bunch of scrubs. Furthermore, FlyQuest dropped both of their regular season games to the defending champs and while they always ended up being somewhat competitive early on, Cloud9 had their number and was always able to capitalize time and time again.

Cloud9 has the edge, and that's been the case throughout 2020 as well. Stylistically, FlyQuest simply cannot compete. Make no mistake: they're an amazing team and they've earned their spot at the top, but their ways of doing things haven't worked against a team of Cloud9's caliber. FlyQuest isn't necessarily one-dimensional, but you know where their biggest strengths lie and how they want to get ahead. Now, granted, stopping them isn't nearly as easy as that last sentence would suggest, but Cloud9 always found a way and they often made it look easy.

We're betting on history to repeat itself tonight, much like it did on so many other occasions throughout the year. That said, FlyQuest are an extremely dangerous challenger and they'll surely fight for every inch of the Summoner's Rift. Either way, expect an entertaining Best of 5 for the ages!