Learn about the Cloud9 phenomenon

This past January, Cloud9 silenced the world with a Cinderella fairy tale at the ELEAGUE Major. They stood on the verge of being eliminated while losing 0-2 in the group stage, to defeat one of the strongest teams in the world in the breathtaking final. However, this win is not the most surprising Major result in the past 12 months.

Last summer, Gambit’s PGL Major Krakow championship surpassed all expectations, even more so than Cloud9’s recent victory. No one thought that Gambit, the team that is not in the top 5 in the world, could do it, against legendary opponents and prestigious organizations. They won the championship of the most prestigious tournament in CS:GO, but quickly collapsed after that at unbelievable speed.

The loss of IGL Daniil “Zeus” Teslenko could be to blame for their poor form, with Gambit unable to replicate the success they did at the Major.

However, with Cloud9, the North American boys are unlikely to follow in Gambit’s footsteps. The team’s players are full of confidence, their tactics are creative and well-trained. This is seen as the squad that can carry on from Boston and turn it into great results.

Impressive resume

Different from Gambit’s Major journey, Cloud9 has ranked – and conquered – the strongest teams at the time and continues to update the list of C9 victims in BO3 at the cs_summit 2 tournament that just happened this week. before. Meanwhile, Gambit had few results to suggest their Major form could hold: the only top 5 team Gambit beat in a BO3 in Krakow was Astralis, an extremely close match.

Meanwhile, Cloud9 has no rival in Boston. In the group stage, although the competition was somewhat shaky in BO1, forcing the team to win against Astralis, one of the brightest candidates of the tournament. The team’s real challenge begins in the quarterfinals. G2, SK, and FaZe – the three teams that were considered strong contenders at that Major – were all defeated by Cloud9. C9 then became the first North American team to win a Major in CS:GO history. BO3 wins against such formidable opponents show that everyone needs to respect the current level of the team.

When comparing C9’s Major matches with those of Gambit’s opponents, Gambit’s journey was not as difficult as that of the North American boys. Therefore, it is difficult to expect the CIS team to win more tournaments like this. While the win over Astralis in the semifinals is remarkable, the victories over FB North American and Immortals can’t match Cloud9’s Major run.

After the ELEAGUE Major came the cs_summit 2 event, a bo3-only offline tournament: a great test to measure the strength of teams. C9 entered the event with high expectations and fans wanted to see if they could continue to achieve the glory. And Cloud9 proved it. Cloud9’s strong wins at the summit house were filled with highlights as they beat SK 2-0. Along with victories over FaZe and G2, and twice against SK in the past few weeks is proof that C9 can continue its level against the big boys.

Signals in the game

In addition to the results, C9 has many other things to ensure they will continue to play like this. The members competed to be world class at cs_summit and disciplined when necessary, while still being able to explode in the aggressive rounds. One sign of strong teams is flexibility and tactical depth. Cloud9 has a lot of new methods plus unexpected playstyles that can make them effective, guaranteeing success up to 90% on uses.

In the clip above, Cloud 9 on the CT side decided to push the second mid on Inferno’s side. Stewie2k was the one who took the initiative, flashed second mid and found the entire T army blinded on his screen. But he only got two out of four kills in this push. The other two lives were put in the pocket of RUSH, who assisted in pushing from the balcony, right above Stewie. Four Heroic members could have died without RUSH in this case, but the detail on both players coming out at the same time is amazing. It makes one of those risky pushups from C9 always life-changing, if not victorious.

It’s just a small detail, but small details like that are what distinguishes good people from good people. Two rounds earlier, Cloud9 showed their very good discipline by not hunting the last T member despite being 4v1. The members understood that they should not give Heroic a chance to flip the bet. This time, the team changed the tempo of the game again, creating two double peeks at two different heights, completely ruining Heroic.

Also in this game, where C9 performed super Inferno in many rounds, the Major champions showed their creativity in their passive as well as active rounds. Cloud9 has the usual mid-hold setup – one under the porch and the other in the arch to create a pincer stance in the mid and boiler room areas – making the area 10x more dangerous if the enemy dares to step in. enter.

RUSH is boosted to the balcony above while the two teammates below defend in pincer position. autimatic dropped B at the beginning of the round after learning that there would be no B rushes, to support Arch teammates. The four Cloud9 members can all see the same angle, but at different directions and heights, making it impossible for T to pre-align. Anyone who crosses this point will hardly survive. This strategy can be successful thanks to everyone’s trust in Stewie, when he keeps B alone, or at least tries to stay alive to give his teammates a chance to retake.

Transforming these common setups makes them incredibly powerful, and Cloud9 has used them to great effect. It took Heroic by surprise and couldn’t react in time, before a rain of bullets from the M4 hit them. Creative rounds like that give the teams a big advantage. Cloud9 has rolled out a lot of rounds like this, showing that they will continue to make waves in the near future.

Star power

When you think about the other top teams like SK, Astralis and FaZe, they all have outstanding talent that can turn the game around and carry the team on their own. While C9 doesn’t have clutch superstars like Xyp9x or monster coldzera, Cloud9’s five players are full of confidence and good clutching, some of the elements that make up top players.

Cloud9 confidence is crazy, probably the best team in the world right now.

— ScreenM (@nV_ScreaM_) 10 February 2018

Cloud9’s confidence is extraordinary, they are probably the strongest team in the world at the moment.

C9’s clutch ability is key in the matches at cs_summit, often capturing seemingly lost rounds thanks to his personal skill. In the clip below, autimatic is stuck in a 1v3 situation after Cloud9’s B rollout failed. The first member of Liquid pushed too far and was quickly headshot by autimatic. After a sneak peek – the autimatic had 14 health left – he brought the round down to 1v1 after a headshot was taken by the next member of Liquid at the bombsite. With good decision making plus good shooting skills, the autimatic wields Bomb A without making any noise for steel to hear, making 1v1 extremely difficult for steel. Although the clip doesn’t show us all, the autimatic was able to plant a bomb at A and kill steel to save the round.

In the special situation that C9 falls into, all members of the team have fairly equal skills. Stewie2k was able to clutch like an autimatic, and with a clever rotation to block the other two T members, in the C9 vs Heroic match at Mirage. Approaching behind the opponent, he completely left the opponent open, taking advantage of his position to get to the closest site possible, and then slowly announced his presence. When that moment happened, he took down the first T and assumed the second member was somewhere on the site, spraying the firebox and snuffing out Heroic’s hopes.

What’s great about this handling is Stewie’s decision to hook the tire in a roundabout way. He pushed from mid to T spawn before hitting A ramp. Once again, the individuals of Team Cloud9 helped get them back into the game. When C9 has so many clutchable members, they become the team that “no round is out of reach”, no matter how difficult the situation.

In addition to the confidence to execute such moves or the good shooting ability of each player, Cloud9 also has incredible numbers to prove that they will continue to perform well in the coming months.

In the two events mentioned above, summit and Major, C9’s stats are absolutely outstanding. Especially when they’re up against the strongest opponents in the world, making these numbers worth admiring. At cs_summit, RUSH got an HLTV rating of 1.22 and a K/D of +32. Tarik got similar ratings, only in the ELEAGUE Major. Automatic scored above 1.1 in both events.

The parameters in the last two Cloud9 LAN tournaments are absolutely amazing, there is no weak link in the ability to shoot. After failing at StarLadder Season 4 Finals when losing to mousesports, Cloud9 will have to continue preparing for IEM Katowice. Let’s see if Cloud9 can continue to replicate the success of the Major and cs_summit 2.

G2, SK and Astralis will be waiting for Cloud9 at the next event. That will be an opportunity for the big boys to take revenge, or maybe continue to salute to a rising North America.