Cloud9 took down 100 Thieves with a 3-0 sweep in their first best-of-five series in the LCS Mid-Season showdown. C9 finished in first place in the regular season and were heavy favorites going into Showdown. Their win against 100 Thieves comes as no surprise to many given their perfect regular season record against them. They also beat 100 Thieves with a reverse sweep in the LCS Lock In tournament.
In a post-game interview with Gabriella “LeTigress” Devia-Allen, Cloud9’s midlaner, Luka “Perkz” Perkovic said, “Anything but a 3-0 would have been a disappointment from us”. Perkz’s performance throughout the entire series earned him the MVP title. His performances got much better with each game played. Even though he died four times in the last game of the series, he put in incredible work overall in terms of assist and kills.
Although 100 Thieves got off to a flying start in the regular season, they did not have a great end to the season. Their mid lane change in the final weeks of the LCS Spring Split was an indication of their struggles. C9’s win means that they get to face LCS Lock In Champions, TL in a winners bracket series. For 100 Thieves, their loss pushes them to a loser brackets elimination match against Dignitas. They would need to beat Dignitas to stay in the Mid-Season Showdown.
How Cloud9 destroyed 100 Thieves in the Mid-Season Showdown
The first game of the series between Cloud9 and 100 Thieves started off slowly. For a fan favorite team, C9 certainly had a shaky start to the series. However, C9’s kill on Tommy “Ryoma” Le opened the game up.
Even though 100 Thieves had an impressive baron steal in game one, it was not enough to take full control. Cloud9’s Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen came up clutch in the final team fight of the game with crucial Ezreal damage. C9 ended game one in 35 minutes with a 7,000 gold lead.
Game two of the series started in a similar fashion. However, C9 had far better map control and a dominant Orianna from Perkz. 100 Thieves failed to secure a single dragon and had to watch their Nexus crumble in under 30 minutes.
With the third game being a must-win for 100 Thieves, they needed to come up with new answers for C9. However, it seems that a Chogath top with an Udyr, Syndra, Senna and TahmKench comp was simply not enough to answer C9. Unlike the first two games, game three was action-packed from the beginning. C9 closed out the game after taking their first baron of the entire series.
Shocking Toplane difference from Fudge
Cloud9’s rookie toplaner, Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami had a very impressive showing against 100 Thieves Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho. Although Ssumday is easily considered one of the best top laners in LCS, Fudge had top lane priority in all three games of the series.
In the last game, Fudge’s Sett had a steady 30 creep score difference on Ssumday’s Chogath. Asides from the top lane difference Fudge showed up for his team during crucial fights. As Cloud9 take on Team Liquid next, it will be interesting to see how well Fudge does against Barney “Alphari” Morris.
The LCS Mid-Season Showdown continues on March 27 as TSM face-off Evil Geniuses in an elimination series.
