Cloud9 went through the first play-in stage of the League of Legends World Championship with style. After going a perfect 4-0, eyes are now turned to the next stage to qualify for the main event. Cloud9’s ADC Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi was the lead contributor to the team’s win. The concern is… Was it individual talent? Or was it a team effort?

Play-In Stage 1

In his four games, Sneaky was able to pull off a 14.7 KDA and has not died more than once in four games. This is by far the squishiest player on the team not dying more than once. All four games that he played went over 30 minutes. Meaning that there was ample time for both Detonation FocusMe and KaBuM! Esports to catch him off. The craziest feat is that three of those games were on Kai’Sa: a very late game ADC. Sneaky was able to survive a Lucian/Pyke and a Varus/Tahm Kench lane.

Cloud9, however, were a bit sketchy against the Japanese team Detonation FocusMe, dropping their gold lead twice in the first game and once during the middle part of the game on their second match. The LJL representatives mainly focused on the top and middle lane for attention while the bot lanes were being pushed in. Often there were no actual all-in fights that ended in multiple deaths during lane phase. This helped Sneaky to farm up fairly safely with defensive wards preventing any flank and dives from the enemy jungler. Sneaky’s support Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam was able to take advantage of any mistake the other ADC or Support made. Especially in the play-in stage, there was a lot to catch for Zeyzal. This helped give Sneaky a massive advantage during lane phase and helped him transition into mid game.

Towards the mid-game, Sneaky was never challenged. While the rookies made a few mistakes here and there, Sneaky was reasonably consistent with his play throughout the mid and late game. He did not make any gaping errors and just sat back and killed whoever his team served to him. With Sneaky playing some more mobile ADCs, he could easily get in and out of fights if needed – especially since he never needed to over-commit in fights, therefore he never died. With a grand total of three deaths in four games, Sneaky had an almost universally perfect mid game statistically.

Looking forward

With Cloud9 expected to overtake Gambit Esports in the next round to qualify for the main event, Sneaky has to look toward the main stage. Up to this point, he has individually been better than every other ADC he has had to face. Cloud9 will either have to face Royal Never Give UP and Gen.G, both teams who have one of the best bot lanes in the world, or they would have to face Flash Wolves and Afreeca Freecs. In both situations, Sneaky is going to have a difficult time and Zeyzal is not going to have the same ease in catching the other team’s mistakes. While Sneaky and the rest of Cloud9 has been good, they now have to play some of the best teams in the world.

Sneaky has had a lot of resources funneled into him, but now there will be a lot less to go around, lanes will be behind, and there will be much more focus on him.

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(Featured Image by Riot Games)