Cloud9 has been eliminated from the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. The team headed into the second Round Robin phase of the Group Stage with a 1-2 deficit and had to win every single game to still have a reasonable chance, but it wasn't meant to be. The very first game, against Griffin, went disastrously wrong. G2 shut the door sealed immediately afterwards.
At the end of a long day, Cloud9's jungler Svenskeren. We spoke about the team's preparation for today, what their thoughts were during the game versus Griffin, and he told us who he think will win this year's World Championship title.
I first want to talk about Cloud9 heading into today. What was the preparation like?
I think the preparation for today was pretty good. We tried to look at what the other teams were doing in the tournament. We also tried to play some AD Carries in the botlane again to see if we could get that to work.
Which teams did you study most?
We were just scrimming RNG a lot, and we scrimmed against Team Liquid as well. We were trying to see what could beat those teams. The scrims were pretty even. I think we went even or had a positive win rate against all the teams we scrimmed. Definitely not bad.
So, after doing well in scrims, you had a good feeling about facing your group again?
Yeah. I mean, I think that the teams in our group are a little harder to beat than those other teams, but we could've beat them. I was pretty confident myself, but I can't tell if the other guys were.
What was your mindset like today? Were you calm, nervous...
I just went into it thinking: "Every game is a new game. Just take it one game at a time." I didn't really care about the games we would play after the Griffin game. We knew that, if we would lose against Griffin, it was kind of over already. We tried to put it all together for the Griffin game.
Alright let's talk about the game versus Griffin. In the draft phase you picked many champions with global abilities—what was the train of thought?
We just wanted to go with something that's easy to play, and obviously going with champions you just press 'R' with is pretty easy. But eh, we weren't even able to execute just pressing 'R'.
Why go with something that's easy to play?
The other teams were able to outplay us when we faced them earlier. I think they just have better macros so we just picked something to maybe go even with and make it to the late game. We were probably going to lose in the late game anyway, because Griffin is insane there. We wanted to do something explosive, and something that is easy to execute.
It didn't quite work out. When did the game feel lost to you?
The game was pretty over once we took the Rift Herald fight and butchered it badly. There was no coming back, really, after that. We went like 5 for 0—we didn't kill a single guy. I don't even know if they had to use Summoner's Spells. We had no comeback plays after that.
What was the vibe in the team like then?
It wasn't too bad. I think most people were 50/50 on being disappointed and not caring too much. It was going to be hard to make it out even if we did beat Griffin. We'd have to beat G2 as well, and G2 is looking insane. Our chances of getting out were going to be slim anyway. It was pretty tough, but we really tried our hardest.
Let's reflect on Worlds as a whole a bit. Throughout the tournament, what was the most positive experience you had?
Just going somewhere new with your team is always a nice experience for me. Travelling the worlds and staying at different locations. We usually just stay in LA, you know, in our gaming house. Seeing more of the world is always nice.
Of the games you played, which game can the team learn the most from?
Maybe the game against Griffin, when Blaber was playing. There was much pressure on the team. I think things like looking at the mini map to see where your teammates are, or that we need to push the tier 2 bot tower instead of the mid inhibitor. Something like that is pretty valuable.
How do you feel about your personal performance?
I only played three games. I don't think I had many opportunities to show what I can do. I think my gameplay was alright, not outstanding or anything. It's hard to say.
What are you going to do now that the tournament is over?
I'm just going to chill in the offseason now. I'll watch the rest of Worlds, because it's obviously very exciting to see who'll be winning. It's always more fun because we've been scrimming against the teams, so we kind of know who the strongest one is.
Who will win, you think?
I have a feeling SKT is going to take it this year. I think they'll beat FunPlus Phoenix in the finals, if those guys can start performing a little bit better like they did in the LPL. I think FPX had some nerves to play on the stage, maybe, but they're looking better now.
To conclude the interview, do you have any words for the Cloud9 fans?
Thanks for supporting us guys. I know we didn't really live up to the expectations, but thanks for being there.
- Tom Matthiesen
- Email : TomM@invenglobal.com
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