If we had to mention the most impressive Western League of Legends team during the recent transfer window, Cloud9 would definitely be on the list. This organization, known as “Cửu Vân,” has made a series of quality signings, acquiring Summit (from Liiv SANDBOX) and Berserker (from T1’s academy team). Additionally, the decision to move promising top laner Fudge to mid lane has surprised many.
Besides the players, Cloud9 has also attracted significant attention by hiring the talented yet controversial LS as head coach for the 2022 season. In fact, shortly after joining C9, this coach, who has had many years in the Korean League of Legends scene, openly criticized Eastern teams. Specifically, during an AMA shortly after joining C9, LS claimed that Eastern teams are extremely weak when it comes to strategic thinking.
This has quickly made LS a widely disliked figure among the Eastern League of Legends community, especially among LCK fans. It’s worth noting that before joining C9, LS was a content creator for T1, an Eastern team. Therefore, this “backstabbing” action from LS is difficult for many to accept. Some even sarcastically commented that LS could never become a good coach with such a personality.
Indeed, before he could respond to the criticism, the new head coach LS of Cloud9 received a wave of “bad news.” Specifically, in a recent stream, LS announced that more than half of the main roster and he himself cannot join the remaining C9 players in the U.S. until the end of February. The reason is that LS along with players Summit, Berserker, and Winsome are still stuck in Korea due to visa issues.
The concerning issue here is that the aforementioned members will not be able to compete for Cloud9 in the upcoming season-opening tournament, the LCS 2022 Lock-in. Of course, this tournament is not heavily focused on results, but playing together early on will greatly speed up the process of finding the team’s synergy.
Furthermore, in the worst-case scenario, LS along with players Summit, Berserker, and Winsome could be stuck in Korea for an even longer time. Thus, they could completely miss the early stages of the LCS Spring 2022 and lose their advantage to rivals like Team SoloMid, Team Liquid, and 100 Thieves. It’s not an exaggeration to say that LS’s “payback” is coming very early, and it may prevent him from having a successful coaching career at C9.
