Sacramento Kings
Cloud 9 Sweeps 100 Thieves to Become the LCS Champions
LCS Championship
The crowd was finally in the United Center representing either blue or red in preparation of the LCS Championship finals series between Cloud 9 and 100 Thieves. Even though they entered the finals as the fifth seed, Cloud 9 was able to achieve their first LCS major trophy since the 2021 Mid Season Showdown, rapidly demolishing their opponents with a rather easy looking 3-0 sweep.
This victory marks the end of a really strange split/year for Cloud 9 in the LCS, which had combinations of huge roster changes, staff controversy, players swapping roles, and the signing of organization heroes back into the main roster.
Going into the other side of the ring, 100 Thieves looked to continue their finals glow up and hopefully grab a third title for the organization, including their victory in last year’s LCS and the 2018 Spring Split.
100 Thieves came into the finals from the winner’s bracket of the LCS Championship after a tough series against Evil Geniuses, where they were ultimately able to complete the upset and move on. Despite 100 Thieves having an incredible roster, one factor remained true, their nemesis Berserker was able to knock them down for the second time in this playoffs bracket.
Like in that previous series, Berserker found even more opportunities to perform with his veteran teammates to bring him and the rest of Cloud 9 the LCS trophy.
Cloud 9 focused on providing Berserker a safe space to go in, pairing the bot laner with champions like Kennen, Nocturne, and Zilean. 100 Thieves was in an awkward spot where they drafted ways to hopefully increase the chances of engagers finding Berserker in the backline, however after game one where he piloted Zeri it became clear it was gonna be a tough task.
It became extremely difficult for 100 Thieves to find a solution for Cloud 9’s approach, as even in game one Fudge and Blaber were also in the lead. Just one well executed teamfight in each game of the series was enough for Cloud 9 to control the tempo of the game, forcing 100 Thieves against the wall around the mid game.
Going into the final game of the series, Cloud 9 went deep into the jungle of 100 Thieves looking for an invade which netted them an early kill at lvl 1. This move absolutely confused 100 Thieves and sadly they were not able to come back from that, a couple of missed ultimates resulted in lack of pressure and vision, which gave Cloud 9 tools to continue their onslaught.
With Jensen on Zilean and Zven on booster supports at his side, Berserker was free to ricochet auto attacks without any worries of 100 Thieves being able to kill him. It got to the point where Zven denied a possible pentakill for Berserker, as ultimately Cloud 9 completed the miracle run becoming the lowest playoffs seeded team to win the Split Championship.
Both 100 Thieves and Cloud 9 will have a spot in Worlds directly into the Group Stage. However, Evil Geniuses will begin their Worlds run in the Play-Ins stage. If you are into league of legends bets, you can’t miss the single most important event of the year, and we have a lot of content prepared, so make sure to stay tuned in!
