Cloud9's first match of the 2021 League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split ended in a loss to Golden Guardians. Despite controlling the pace of the game for its majority, mistakes in the late game allowed GG to storm back with the help of the Ocean Soul and steal a late game win from the reigning champion of North America.

The loss was also the LCS debut of AD carry Calvin "k1ng" Truong, who was promoted to the LCS over Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen only a few days prior to the start of the Summer Split. Immediately after the loss, k1ng took to Twitter to apologize regarding the Cloud9 loss to Golden Guardians.

Despite what k1ng may feel, Cloud9 top laner Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami told Inven Global that he felt positive about his countryman's LCS debut. I think Calvin actually played pretty well," Fudge said after the match. "I think the reason we lost was mainly due to mechanical mistakes from everyone because our composition was pretty mechanically intensive. We misplayed a lot of fights and fought in pretty bad positions a lot of the time. 

I think Calvin played the way he was supposed to. I would definitely not say he was a reason we lost, at all. I think he played pretty fine in lane; I don’t think he carried or anything, but I don’t think he played poorly either. "

Against Golden Guardians, Cloud9 lost a game it very easily should have won, but a strong debut from GG support Jonathan "Chime" Pomponio and a career performance by mid laner Nick "Ablazeolive" Abbott on Zoe was enough to take advantage of C9's mistakes. Despite this, C9 is coming off of a post-MSI break and a roster swap within the past week, so an opening day loss, while disappointing, is not at all cause for concern for the reigning LCS champion.