Cloud9 sweep Golden Guardians to move on in LCS playoffs

This weekend marks both lower bracket matchups in the LCS Spring Split Playoffs 2022. Cloud9 fell from the winner’s bracket and had to face Golden Guardians on Saturday in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. Cloud9 decimated Golden Guardians in a 3-0 sweep and will face the winner of Evil Geniuses vs FlyQuest.

Cloud9 swept Golden Guardians to move forward in LCS Playoffs

Golden Guardians drafted an early game composition that centered around a Nocturne. However, the Golden Guardians were put into a corner with a short-range draft that was countered by Cloud9’s last 2 picks, Gangplank and Viktor, which can deal damage from a distance. Cloud9’s mid laner, Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami had a fantastic game on Viktor, getting a beautiful quadra kill mid with a Flash Death Ray after winning a fight at the Baron pit. From that point forward, Cloud9 slowly pushed into Golden Guardian’s base to lead the series 1-0.

FUDGE FINDS ALL FOUR! @Fudgecakey #LCS pic.twitter.com/dYSjQCnBa3

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) April 9, 2022

In game 2, Cloud9 drafted an early composition that centered around Caitlyn Lux, taking the fight to the Golden Guardians. GG had a slight gold lead early and were able to steal the third drake from Cloud9, and even took a winning fight after, where they were able to pick off Fudge’s LeBlanc at the beginning of the game. However, Golden Guardians started a fight near Cloud9’s tier-one tower that ended with them losing 2. Park “Summit” Woo-tae’s Ornn ultimate picked off two Golden Guardians members, allowing C9 to get Baron and win the game.

For the final game, Golden Guardians reached deep into their bag of tricks and pulled out a classic Senna and Tahm Kench composition. The goal of Golden Guardians composition was to scale into the late game along with Ornn. Once again, Cloud9 drafted the same late-game response as game one, ending their draft with Viktor and Gangplank. The game seemed to be going well for Golden Guardians, getting three early kills and a dive onto Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol’s Miss Fortune. Their lead slowly slipped away, though, as Cloud9 comfortably scaled into the late game. A mid lane engagement at 24 minutes sealed Golden Guardians’ fate, and gave Cloud9 the win 3-0.

C9 are just too clean. @C9LoL #LCS pic.twitter.com/jgzE3UrxxU

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) April 9, 2022

After the game, Fudge mentioned the swap between Kim “Winsome” Dong-keon and Academy support Jonah “Isles” Rosario as a large contributing factor to their win. Two days into scrimmages after their loss to 100 Thieves, Cloud9 realized that his presence allowed the team to better communicate and make plans in-game.