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Cloud9 Roster Changes: Jensen set to return, Fudge back to top lane, Zven to support

If we take a look back at the 2022 spring split, it was clear that Cloud9’s run was a complete mess. They made a change in their coaching staff 2 weeks into the split. Cloud9 dropped Nick “LS” De Cesare off the main roster and promoted Maxwell Alexander “Max Waldo” Waldo to head coach. It was very clear that the team was having a lot of internal issues and they were trying to fix them as fast as possible.

But changing head coaches wasn’t the best solution to their problems. Cloud9 managed to maintain themselves in a good spot throughout the regular season but it wasn’t enough as they failed to get past the first round of playoffs. Now, Cloud9 is looking to make big changes in their lineup to have the best chances at getting the championship in the upcoming LCS Summer Split.

This would the first time these three players play together
This would the first time these three players play together

Jensen is coming back home

The 27-year-old Danish mid laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen is set to make a return to his former team Cloud9. The last time we saw him play was on Team Liquid, where he got two LCS titles in a row back in 2019. Jensen already had a run with the Cloud9 organization from 2015 to 2018 where he had mixed results but was never able to claim an LCS title. If we take a look at the current pool of mid laners in the LCS, it’s safe to say that Jensen will be amongst the best in this role. Jojopyun is the current LCS champion and the best mid laner in the competition, but he’s never had to face Jensen in the past, making it an exciting matchup to look for.

Jensen would be reuniting with his jungler from back in 2018, Robert “Blaber” Huang, making his return to the competitive scene a little bit easier. Without a doubt, this is one of the biggest LCS roster moves we’ve seen in recent times.

Fudge is done with the mid lane

One of the biggest reasons why people were excited to watch Cloud9 in the spring split was because Fudge swapped from top lane to mid lane. This was thanks to his former coach Nick De Cesare because he was convinced that Fudge was “built” for mid and not top. But this little experiment can be considered a failure as Fudge was never able to make a name for himself in the mid lane. Sure he never had really bad results, but he wasn’t able to make a big impact either.

Fudge has yet to win an LCS title with Cloud9, but his returning to the top lane might be a good thing. In 2020, Fudge was receiving a lot of praise from his peers as he was considered one of the best in his role. And this is something hard to accomplish if we consider that he is facing the likes of Impact and Ssumday who are undoubtedly favored by the lol odds.

Zven role swap from ADC to support

Out of all the roster changes, this might be the most unexpected one. Last year Zven got demoted to the LCS academy and that was very surprising considering that C9 had just won the LCS Spring Split and went to represent North America at the 2021 MSI. Zven’s run with Cloud9 academy wasn’t the best as they placed 4th. But Cloud9 wasn’t having the best results in the LCS, so they brought Zven back in and they got all the way to the semi-finals. Cloud9 participated in the 2021 world championship and qualified for the playoffs where they got knocked out by Gen.G 3-0.

Zven remained under the Cloud9 organization but didn’t play in Academy or LCS. Cloud9 replaced him with Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol, and this change wasn’t a miss. Berserker turned out to be one of the best ADCs we have seen in the LCS. The only missing piece for Cloud9 was a leader, someone capable of making the important decisions during their games. Zven is coming back to the main roster to fill this position, now it’s just a matter of time to see how he performs in the support position. Stay tuned as we get closer to the summer season and start sharing our esports picks.

 

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