After getting swept in two of their last three best-of-five series, Cloud9’s rocky 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs run has come to an end. The talented League of Legends roster was sideswiped by Evil Geniuses this past weekend, marking the end of a disappointing opening season where the squad ended with the most total team deaths of the postseason so far.
C9 finished the playoffs with a collective 150 deaths, which is the highest total before the upcoming Finals weekend, according to League stats aggregate Oracle’s Elixir. The team also had the third-lowest team KDA in the playoffs, sitting ahead of only FlyQuest and Golden Guardians.
Throughout the regular season, C9 had a major win condition in the form of their superstar top laner Summit, who was arguably the most valuable player of the 2022 Spring Split. He dominated the competition in both the early game and the late-stage teamfights, giving their fans hope in a possible berth at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational.
The top-tier teams in the playoffs had something else in mind during the playoffs, though. When C9 faced off against 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses, both rosters had a clear game plan to execute: lock down Summit. In both series, 100T and EG threw a ton of attention to the top lane to nullify Summit’s effectiveness, launching multiple ganks in the early game to put him behind.
Related: Evil Geniuses head to Houston after eliminating Cloud9 from 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs
As a result, Summit stumbled to a 1.5 KDA and the second-most deaths in the playoffs, according to Oracle’s. The rest of the team struggled to fill in the blanks with their star top laner shut down, looking uncoordinated during late-game skirmishes. The only player on the team with more kills than deaths was Fudge, who had 39 kills, 45 assists, and 18 deaths across nine games.
With the long mid-year break now approaching, C9 must make some big changes to their in-game strategies before the start of the 2022 Summer Split. Their reliance on Summit was a huge Achilles’ heel that was exploited in the playoffs and must be rectified if they want a chance to represent North America at this year’s World Championship.
In the meantime, however, you can watch the best teams in the LCS battle it out for glory when the 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs continue on Saturday, April 23.
