▲ Photo by OSHIN VILLA TUDAYAN for Riot Games

Cloud9 finished the 2020 League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split with a 17-1 record, running away with 1st place and securing the 1st playoff seed weeks before the conclusion of play. Cloud9's split is tied for the most dominant in history with Immortals' 2016 NA LCS Spring Split and TSM's 2016 NA LCS Summer Split.

Cloud9 Support Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme spoke to Inven Global's Nick Geracie about how C9 is adjusting to competing during the outbreak of COVID-19, LCS Player of the Week, and who he has his eye on in the post-season after denying Team Liquid a spot in the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs.

I'm joined by Cloud9 Support Vulcan via Discord. What's it been like having to play entirely online due to the outbreak of COVID-19?

It was pretty hard for the first week, which was last week. It was hard to differentiate scrims from the actual LCS games because there isn't really as much of a difference as there was before the lockdown. Usually, we scrim in our scrim room, but we go to the LCS arena to play our games. It's a very different vibe and environment.

Last week, playing games felt too much like scrims, so I think it was hard to focus as much and play with a similar mindset to the one we usually have when we play on stage. Ahead of this weekend, we tried scrimming in a different environment than where we'd actually play our matches in LCS this week.

Now, we can at least try to differentiate between the two and have the right mindset heading into competitive games. We've been able to improve on our way of doing things since last week.

What have you been doing to change your environment between scrims and LCS games?

All of the players have two setups, so we decided to scrim on one setup and then play our games on our other setups. It's not too complicated, but it's a pretty simple way of being able to focus up. You have to bring your gear over to the other setup, just like we have to bring our gear and plug it in on stage before we play at the studio. It's a good way to set us up for success.

Cloud9 had already locked in the 1st seed for the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs a few weeks ago. Did you come into this week with your sights set on winning Player of the Week?

I've been thinking about it, but I didn't want LCS Player of the Week to get in the way of denying TL the playoffs.

Last time we spoke, you said you thought TSM had the best chance of challenging Cloud9, and shortly after, TSM gave your team its only loss of the season. Is TSM still the team you've got your eye on heading into the post-season?

Yeah, I think it's still TSM. They can be pretty inconsistent, but I think they have higher highs than all of the other teams. Evil Geniuses might be up there, too, but as we showed, I think EG is pretty beatable in the Draft Phase.

If you shut down EG's Mid Laner Daniele "Jiizuke" di Mauro when he's not on one of his signature champions, I think their team lacks playmaking, and with it, a way to snowball the game. All things considered, I'd say it's between EG and TSM. EG is more consistent, but TSM has higher highs.

Thanks for your insights, Vulcan, and best of luck in the post-season. Is there anything you want to say to the C9 fans?

This year is finally the year that Cloud9 wins a split again, so I hope you guys are hyped for that.