Cloud9 fell to FlyQuest in an extremely one-sided - practically 4-0 - series that qualified FlyQuest to Worlds and sent C9 to the lower bracket to match up against Evil Geniuses next week. C9 had an incredible start to the Summer Split, going 9-0 in the first round-robin. However, since then, including this series, the team has just a 5-8 record. 

FlyQuest completely outmaneuvered Cloud9 throughout the series,  taking 15 drakes to C9's four, and five Heralds to C9's three. The early game kills combined with the incredible objective control was too much for the NA second seed to handle and carried FlyQuest to the series victory. The one win Cloud9 got was thanks to a huge late-game throw from FlyQuest that C9 capitalized well on, but the one win isn't enough to take the series.

After the games, we spoke with Cloud9 Mid Laner, Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer, to get his take on the team's performance issues, the mid lane meta, and his hopes for qualifying for Worlds.

What do you feel like went wrong for C9? Do you feel like it was preparation or is FlyQuest just the better team right now?

I'm not sure, to be honest. I think FLY played a decent game. We lost a lot of early fights and early dragons and stuff from just making mistakes. We forced a lot when their Shen was level six, and other stuff like that - just random mistakes. We just didn't play that well today. 

This was the first time you guys played on this patch, do you feel like that had anything to do with it? 

Not necessarily, no. I feel like it was kind of the same meta as in scrims, minus a few picks. But I don't feel like it's a meta issue or anything like that. 

You've struggled a lot since the first half of the Summer Split, do you all have a firm grasp of what is going on with the team?

I'm not so sure. We still win most of our games in scrims, so maybe it's just that FLY was a better team today, or maybe the teams we're scrimming are just worse in general. I'm not sure.

You're playing EG this weekend, do you have any thoughts about them?

I feel like we should be able to win against EG, we just have to figure out our issues. Today we made too many mistakes - everyone did. So I think if we prep well we should be able to beat EG, yeah. 

It's going to be in just two days, what can the team even do to prepare with only one day? 

I think tomorrow, we're probably going to scrim and figure out what we're going to play on Saturday, whether we want to change things or not. So we'll figure that out and practice it and then learn a lot from today as well. It was four games, and in all of them we made mistakes, so we'll improve from reviewing them as well. 

The mid lane seems to be flipping back towards the more traditional style and Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen found their place back on top of the All-Pro awards. What is your take on the mid lane meta and player strength and where is your place in that?

For me, I think the mid lane meta depends on what team you're on and what your team wants to play, because there is one meta where you play TF and Galio and you play for sides with your global ult. Or you can play the scaling mages, like Orianna and Azir. Some people are playing Sylas and Akali, some assassins as well. So you can play a lot in the mid lane right now, I think it just depends on what your team needs and how your team works with you. For GG, it's mostly roaming with Galio and TF, but for TSM, Bjergsen is playing Azir and Le Blanc, the carry champs. So it depends based on the team.

Do you think they got honored more because their style of play is more focused on themselves? Or do you actually think those two plus Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage are the best based on performance? 

Yeah, I think it's fair, I think they're probably top three. And they do kind of have the same style - a bit. They play Orianna, Azir, etc. and I think mages are pretty strong this patch, so...

I know you probably expected to win this game, but what is your optimism for reaching Worlds at this point? 

Yeah, I mean today we lost but I feel like we all know we can come back in form. At the beginning of the split we were really good, but then we struggled after our 9-0 run. If we figure out our s*** and play as well as we played before then we still have hope. But if we don't improve then we're probably not making it. But for me, I still want to make Worlds because we are capable, we're good players. So in my opinion, we still have the tools to make it.

One thing people have been wondering is, "Are Cloud9 just playing poorly and the region is doomed, or is the rest of NA getting good to match them?" What are your thoughts on what's happening and the overall regional strength? 

I think if a team beats us and goes to Worlds then they deserve it. FLY is looking pretty decent, they played a decent game. I wouldn't say that they're perfect or anything but I think both individually and as a team, they played pretty well. So it's nice for NA to send FlyQuest, and I think the two other teams we send are going to be as good. So I'm happy - not happy that we lost - but people are saying FlyQuest isn't good, but they are decent and deserve the spot. Good luck to them at Worlds. 

You guys were 7-0 against FlyQuest this year and 10-1 since last Spring. What happened today? Did they make some fundamental change to help them flip the script? 

Uhhh, I'm not so sure. Their play changed a bit, I guess, but I think they just played better as a team compared to before. They made fewer mistakes. 

Anything you want to say to the NA fans still hoping to see you guys represent the region at Worlds? 

Yeah, I'm not sure. Hahaha. We lost, it sucks. We are the first ones to know that this sucks. We really thought we were going to win today, and we were looking pretty good in scrims as well, so we just have to figure out what's going on and hope we fix that and then we'll go to Worlds.