Cloud9 (C9) is a North American esports team formed by the former roster of Quantic Gaming following its dissolution. Aside from League of Legends, the organization also has divisions for DotA 2, COD, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Super Smash Bros, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and Vainglory.

History [ edit ]

Pre-Season 3 [ edit ]

During the off-season, the Quantic Gaming organization fell into financial distress and shut down operations, leaving the League of Legends team without a sponsor once again. Competing under the name "Team NomNom" and then Cloud9, Nientonsoh, Hai, Yazuki, Wild Turtle, and LemonNation secured a spot in the Season 3 North American Offline Qualifier for the League of Legends Championship Series. However, Cloud9 was knocked out in the group stage after losing to Azure Gaming and future LCS team Team MRN.

Initially, Nientonsoh said that Cloud9 would disband in light of the loss. The team later decided to stay together, although Nientonsoh and Yazuki did leave, causing a large roster change. Hai shifted from jungle to mid, and the team tried out new junglers and top laners in online competitions.

Season 3 [ edit ]

On April 1, the Cloud9 roster of Hai, LemonNation, Meteos, and Balls was picked up by Quantic Gaming. However, just a few weeks later the roster would once again become Cloud9 with previous TSM manager Jack Etienne becoming their manager and owner of the team. In the Summer Promotion Qualifier, Cloud9 went 5-0 to earn a spot in the LCS Summer Split, beating Team Astral Poke 2-0, and compLexity 3-0. Cloud9 possesses the longest win streak in LCS history (13 games), the most victories in an LCS season split (25 games), and won first place in the Summer Split. Throughout the NA LCS Summer Playoffs, they were able to win every single one of their games/sets, first against Team Dignitas and then the grand finals against TSM. Cloud9 took home $50,000 USD as well a first round bye at the Season 3 World Championship. They finished their season 3 LCS and playoffs with a 30-3 total, the highest in LCS history and with a 91% win rate.

With high hopes, C9 went straight into the S3 Championship quarterfinals for being the North American champions. Their first international match as a team was against the top European seed, Fnatic. In a formidable set of games, Cloud9 lost 1-2, being the last North American team to be eliminated and ending up in eighth place.

2014 Preseason [ edit ]

On October 29, it was announced that while Alex Penn leaves, Dan Dinh would join as new coach.[1]

At the first international pre-season tournament, IEM Cologne in November, Cloud9 received a bye into the second round and competed against Gambit Gaming of Russia. Gambit defeated Cloud9 2-0, marking their second immediate exit from an international tournament.

In December 2013, Cloud9 joined four other North American LCS teams at the Battle of the Atlantic, facing European champions Fnatic for the second time. With dominating performances by mid laner Hai, Cloud9 took the series 2-0, resulting in an overall North American win at the tournament and $10,000 USD for the team.

2014 Season [ edit ]

Cloud9 won the spring split of the LCS once again, and qualifying for the All Star event. However, prior to the event, Hai's lung collapsed, hospitalizing him and requiring him to use a respirator, and the team had to play with a substitute. After C9 requested Link as a temporary replacement, Counter Logic Gaming readily agreed to a two-month emergency loan deal that would cover the time in between splits, including All-Stars. Cloud9 went 3-1 in the group stage, losing only to SK Telecom T1 K, but in the bracket they were eliminated in the first round by OMG, losing 2-0.

In the summer season, despite placing first in the round robin, they took second place overall, losing to Team SoloMid in the finals 2-3. The second-place finish qualified them for the 2014 Season World Championship, where they were drawn into Group D along with NaJin White Shield, Alliance, and KaBuM! e-Sports. Cloud9 went 4-2 in the group, drawing with NaJin Shield for first place but losing the tiebreaker game. They were eliminated from the tournament in the bracket stage, falling 3-1 to Samsung Blue.

2015 Preseason [ edit ]

Cloud9 was the North American team fan-voted to IEM San Jose.[2] They defeated paiN Gaming 2-0, Alliance 2-1, and then Unicorns of Love 3-0 to win the tournament.

On December 30, it was announced that Cloud9 were holding open tryouts for a North American Challenger team.[3] See information about this team at Cloud9 Tempest.

2015 Season [ edit ]

Due to their IEM San Jose victory, Cloud9 qualified for IEM Katowice in March. They lost their only two games, first to GE Tigers and then to yoe Flash Wolves, and finished in 7th/8th place. Domestically, they underperformed at the start of the season, and were in 8th place at the end of the second week of the spring LCS split. However, they improved over the course of the season, ending with a second-place finish behind Team SoloMid and a playoff bye; after beating Team Liquid 3-2, Cloud9 lost to TSM 1-3 in the finals and finished the split overall in second place.

Soon after the spring finals, Hai announced his retirement from professional play, citing his wrist injuries and the fact that his support carry playstyle was not viable anymore as reasons for his retirement; however, he would remain with the Cloud9 organization as their Chief Gaming Officer.[4] After tryouts including Cloud9 Tempest mid laner Yusui and the recently-unbanned European solo queue star Incarnati0n, the team settled on Incarnati0n as their new mid laner for the Summer Split. The team performed poorly for the first five weeks of the split and replaced Meteos with Hai going into the sixth week.

With Hai back on the team, Cloud9's record improved from 3-7 to 6-12 by the end of the split, and they finished in 7th place after a tie-breaker victory against Team 8, narrowly avoiding relegations and retaining their 70 Championship Points, though they did not qualify for playoffs. In the Regional Finals Gauntlet, Cloud9 reverse-swept both Gravity Gaming and Team Impulse before beating Team Liquid 3-1 in the finals. Their fourteen games played over the course of three days gave them North America's third seed to the 2015 Season World Championship, Cloud9's third-consecutive Worlds.

Considered an underdog at Worlds, Cloud9 were placed into Group B along with Fnatic, ahq, and Invictus Gaming and expected to place last. Instead, they surprised with an undefeated 3-0 first week, with Hai suddenly performing well on Lee Sin and Balls on Darius; Incarnati0n also introduced Veigar as a pick in their first game against ahq. In the second week, Cloud9 needed only one win to advance to the quarterfinals but were unable to find it, losing four games in a row including a tiebreaker loss to ahq. They placed third in their group, ahead of only Invictus Gaming.

2016 Preseason [ edit ]

After their Worlds run, Cloud9 announced the retirement of LemonNation and his move to a staff role; they also opened tryouts for jungler and support, with Hai to play whichever role was not filled via a tryout.[5] They ended up adding two new players - former Gravity support Bunny FuFuu and Team Impulse jungler Rush - with Hai to split time with Bunny in the support role.[6] Rush debuted with the team at IEM Cologne, where they were eliminated in the first round by H2k.

2016 Season [ edit ]

Cloud9 started the spring season with Hai and Bunny FuFuu alternating games, but after two losses with Bunny and two wins with Hai, they committed to starting Hai full-time and rose to a 67% winrate, with a third-place seed in the playoffs. However, despite a seeding advantage, the team lost to sixth-seed TSM in the first round. After the end of the split, Cloud9 recreated its Challenger team and shuffled rosters between the two teams, initially setting up for the summer split with Impact, Meteos, Jensen, Sneaky, and Bunny FuFuu as its LCS roster; former Team Dragon Knights support Smoothie later also joined the team.[7][8]

For the first seven weeks of the split, Bunny FuFuu and Smoothie shared the support role, but after that point Bunny stepped down to a substitute and streaming role, and Smoothie became the full-time starter.[9] The team equaled its spring record with a 12-6 finish, again securing the third seed into the playoffs. There, Cloud9 defeated Team EnVyUs and Immortals before falling to TSM 3-1 in the finals; their second-place result was their best placement since Spring 2015. In the Regional Finals, or the gauntlet, Cloud9 faced and defeated both EnVyUs and Immortals to qualify for the World Championship for the fourth consecutive year.

The team was placed into Group B together with SK Telecom T1, Flash Wolves and I May. The North American powerhouse walked on the edge of elimination until the very last game of the Group Stage: Meteos, Jensen and Sneaky had rough games, and Impact wasn't able to snowball an early advantage into a game-winning splitpush threat on his signature Gnar, as he did in the NALCS Playoffs. In the end managed to clutch a Quarterfinals berth after two difficult weeks of competition, placing second with a 3-3 score and thus becoming the first North American team since 2014 to place in the Top 8 at Worlds after North America had been shut out of the playoffs in 2015. They were drawn into the right side of the playoff bracket, where they met Samsung Galaxy and were swept 0-3 by the Korean team.

2017 Season [ edit ]

As the best-performing NA team at the 2016 Season World Championship, Cloud9 received an invitation to the IEM World Championship; however, two weeks before the competition, C9 withdrew from the tournament, citing their priority to focus on continuing their then-dominant performances in the NA LCS, as well as the political uncertainty of the environment regarding travel by persons with visas.[10]

In the offseason, Cloud9 made two roster changes. Meteos stepped down as starting jungler, leaving Sneaky as the only remaining member of the original Cloud9 roster. Replacing him was rookie jungler Contractz, formerly of Cloud9 Challenger. The team also acquired former Apex Gaming top laner Ray, with the intention of platooning him and Impact. Cloud9 would also be playing against new LCS team FlyQuest in the Spring, which had begun as Cloud9's challenger team and included original Cloud9 members Hai, Balls, and LemonNation.

With Impact getting most of the starts in the top lane, Cloud9 roared to an 8-0 record over the first four weeks of the Spring Split, good for first place, two games above a surprising FlyQuest. However, Cloud9 cooled off over the next four weeks, going 4-4 and falling to within 1 game of third place Phoenix1, before a 2-0 final week propelled them to a 14-4 finish, comfortably in second. Cloud9 also beat FlyQuest in both of their head to head matchups. For their efforts, Reapered win would Coach of the Split, Contractz would receive Rookie of the Split, and Smoothie would also be named to the all NALCS First Team.

With their playoff bye, Cloud9's first stop in the playoffs would be against Phoenix1 in the semifinals, which by this time included former C9 jungler Meteos, who had joined them in midseason. Meteos failed to defeat his old team, and Cloud9 swept Phoenix1 3-0, setting up their second consecutive finals appearance against TSM. Going into the finals, C9 elected to alternate Ray and Impact as they had in the semifinals. However, this strategy appeared not to work, as each player lost the first game they played. Switching back to Ray for game 3, Cloud9 prevailed in a close match to stave off elimination, followed by a dominant game 4 win behind Impact on Shen and Smoothie's surprise Gragas support pick. With Ray returning for game 5, Cloud9 were on the brink of reverse sweeping TSM and winning their first title since the 2014 Spring Split. However, Jensen failed to use either his Zhonya's Hourglass or Ekko ultimate in a crucial teamfight, giving TSM the victory in both the fight and the series.

Cloud9 made no changes in the midseason, but began the Summer Split inconsistently. Of particular concern was the top lane, with both Impact and Ray starting for stretches of time but neither playing well. At the mid-split break, Cloud9 was 6-4, good for fourth place behind TSM and a much improved Immortals and CLG.

Their second place finish in the previous split meant that Cloud9 would be one of the three North American teams invited to the first EU/NA Rift Rivals, along with TSM and Phoenix1. However, a number of Cloud9 players were ill during the event, so while NA were dominant, Cloud9 finished only 3-3, the worst of the invited North American teams, and did not make it out of the group stage.

The aftereffects of their Rift Rivals struggles continued when C9 returned to domestic play, as they went 0-2 in week 6 and fell to 6th place. However, helped by having the easiest remaining schedule of any team, C9 won their final six games to finish fourth. The team also settled on Impact in the top lane, with Ray not playing any games after week six. Despite the team's struggles, Jensen had remained consistently dominant, and managed to edge Bjergsen of TSM for the NALCS First Team mid lane slot.

In the quartefinals, Cloud9 were matched up against 5th place Team Dignitas, who also had an inconsistent Summer Split but were looking much improved with the addition of bot laners Altec and Adrian. The series was expected to be close, but Dignitas shocked the world by taking the first two games off of Cloud9 to put them one game away from advancing. C9 managed to win game 3 and were on the verge of sending it to a game 5 with all three Dignitas inhibitors down, but a clutch Taliyah ultimate by mid laner Keane prevented C9 from reaching the nexus. Dignitas then held on to outlast Cloud9, eliminating them from the playoffs.

Due to their Championship Points from the Spring Split, Cloud9 would have the first slot in the Regional Finals to make the 2017 Season World Championship. There, they met CLG and defeated them 3-1, keeping Cloud9's record of never missing Worlds since qualifying for the LCS intact. Due to being the third seed, Cloud9 entered Worlds through the new Play-In stage, and were seeded into Group B with Dire Wolves of the OPL and Team oNe eSports of the CBLOL. Cloud9 easily dispatched both teams in the group stage and then defeated Latin America North's Lyon Gaming to qualify for the main Group Stage, all without dropping a single game.

In the main event, Cloud9 were seeded into Group A, alongside LCK second-place team SK Telecom T1, LPL champions Edward Gaming and second-place Ahq e-Sports Club of the LMS. Expected to be in contention with Edward Gaming for the second seed, Cloud9 had a good first week, losing only to SKT, as EDG massively under performed. However, Cloud9 lost to both SKT and a much improved EDG in week 2 and appeared on the verge of having to play a tiebreaker before EDG once again blew a massive gold lead to SKT, propelling C9 into the knockout stage. For the second year in a row, Cloud9 were the only North American team to make it out of groups.

In the knockout stage, they matched up against Team WE of the LPL. After losing the first game despite opening up an early lead, C9 won the next two games to put them one win away from becoming the first North American team ever to advance to the semifinals of Worlds. However, Cloud9's luck ran out there, as they lost the next two games and were eliminated, ending their Worlds journey.

2018 Season [ edit ]

Spring Split [ edit ]

In the offseason, Cloud9 once again made changes in jungle and top lane. Both top laners departed and were replaced by rookie Licorice, while Contractz was replaced by former TSM jungler Svenskeren. Reviews of these changes were mixed: while Licorice had been one of the best top laners in the Challenger Series, there were questions about his ability to match up against many of the elite imports in the NALCS, and Svenskeren had been considered a weak link on TSM despite having won multiple splits with the team. The beginning of the Spring Split seemed to belie these pessimistic predictions, as Cloud9 began the season 7-1, tied with an equally surprising Echo Fox for first place through the first four weeks. Particularly integral to their success was Licorice's stellar play on a variety of carry champions, as well as excellent support play by Smoothie. However, the team seemed to hit a speed bump in the next few weeks, posting 1-1 records in weeks 5 through 8, with Licorice beginning to struggle as the top lane meta shifted towards tanks. Still, going into Week 9, C9 had clinched playoffs and remained tied for first, and needed only a single victory in the final week to clinch themselves a playoff bye. However, they first lost to a surging Team Liquid, then were upset by 8th place FlyQuest, setting up an unprecedented four way tie for 3rd place between them, Team Liquid, Clutch Gaming, and TSM that had to be broken through a tiebreaker series. Cloud9's struggles continued in this series, as they lost again to Team Liquid in the first tiebreaker to drop them to the 5th place match, before managing to finally stop the bleeding with a victory against Clutch.

In the playoff quarterfinals, Cloud9 were yet again matched up against Team Liquid. Though Liquid was favored due to C9's late season struggles, the series was expected to be hotly contested. While C9 kept all three games close, they failed to win any of them, ending their season in the quarterfinals with only 10 Championship Points.

Summer Split [ edit ]

C9 started the 2018 Summer Season by promoting Goldenglue, Keith, and Zeyzal to the LCS roster. By Week 5 C9 were in tenth place. After bringing back Jensen and Sneaky to the main roster as well as subbing in Blaber for the rest of the summer season, Cloud9 surged and made it to second place and secured a playoff bye by the end of the regular season. In the playoffs, Cloud9 defeated Team SoloMid 3-2 in the Semifinals and lost 0-3 to Team Liquid in the Finals. They moved onto the Regional Qualifier and won 3-0 over TSM to make worlds.

At the 2018 World Championship, Cloud9 once again had to make it through the Play-In stage. They went 4-0 in the Play-In group stage, and beat Gambit Esports 3-2 to advance to the Main Event. Cloud 9 were seeded into Group B, dubbed the "Group of Death", with Team Vitality, Royal Never Give Up, and Gen.G. Cloud9 defied expectations and made it out of the group in second place with a 4-3 record after losing the first place tiebreaker to RNG.

In the Quarterfinals, C9 made history and defeated Afreeca Freecs 3-0, making it the first time since the Season One World Championship that a North American team had made semifinals. In the Semifinals, C9 lost 0-3 to Fnatic.

2019 Season [ edit ]

Spring Split [ edit ]

After defying expectations the previous year, the fans had high hopes for Cloud9. During the offseason, they lost one of their longest standing members, Jensen, to one of their biggest rivals Team Liquid and decided to bring in European talent, Nisqy, to replace him. By the end of the regular season they had an impressive record of 14-4 beating every team at least once with the exception of Team Liquid who had the same record but managed to claim first seed due to their 2-0 head to head record with C9. Cloud9 were still able to secure a bye for playoffs straight to the semifinals where they would eventually be reverse swept by long time rivals, TSM, ending their playoffs run for the spring split.

Summer Split [ edit ]

Summer split for Cloud9 was all about their star jungler, Svenskeren, who dominated in most of their games with play-making junglers such as Gragas, Lee Sin, and Xin Zhao. Unlike the previous split, they beat every team at least once including Team Liquid whom they handily defeated in both games of the regular season. They ended the regular season with a record of 12-6 enough to secure them a bye for playoffs in the semifinals once again. They would face the 3rd Seed, CLG in the semifinals and beat them 3-1 to advance in the finals against their biggest rival at the time, Team Liquid. The finals took place at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan where Svenskeren was awarded HONDA MVP for his monstrous performance during the regular season. The finals would go to 5 games with Team Liquid eventually coming on top as the 2019 Summer Split Champions winning the championship back-to-back-to-back-to-back. For the first time in 3 years, Cloud9 would no longer have to win the regional gauntlet to qualify for worlds as they have accumulated enough championship points to attend as North America's second seed.

Trivia [ edit ]

Cloud9 earned the " Esports Organisation of the Year " prize at the Esports Awards in 2018. [11]

earned the " " prize at the Esports Awards in 2018. The team has qualified for at least one LCS playoff final every year since its' inception.

Timeline [ edit ]

Player Roster [ edit ]

Active [ edit ]

Dates: Approx | Exact

Player Name Role Joined NA

Licorice Eric Ritchie

Top Laner NA

Blaber Robert Huang

Jungler EU

Nisqy Yasin Dinçer

Mid Laner EU

Zven Jesper Svenningsen

Bot Laner NA

Vulcan Philippe Laflamme

Support

Note: Teams are free to switch players between their LCS and Academy League rosters as long as their roster for each game complies with the rules outlined in this article. Therefore, more players are eligible to start than are listed on this page - we will only list those that do play.

Former [ edit ]

Players are shown for the entire duration of their tenure on the team, with the role and substitute/trainee status they had upon their departure.

Dates: Approx | Exact

Player League Participation [ edit ]

Organization [ edit ]

Current [ edit ]

C ID Name Position Jack Jack Etienne Founder & CEO paulliek Paullie Etienne Co-Founder & COO dfiden Dan Fiden President Donald Boyce VP, Partnerships and Operations Kristen Salvatore SVP, Marketing Sneaky Zachary Scuderi 80 Owner & Advisor Eunice Chen Advisor Alyeska Emily Gonzalez-Holland Director of Marketing Adrian Gale Director of Merchandising, Apparel, and Consumer Products Miss Halee Mason Lead Data Scientist John Nomis Lead Writer Gaylen Gaylen Malone Senior General Manager Mateus Mateus Gravatá Portilho Head of Social Media Camille Dunn Head of Production Tyler Barstow Partnerships Manager Gregory Gregory Fraser Partnerships Manager Mae Mae Alyssa Gabbert Operations Manager Janet Janet Kim Social Media Manager Calle Danielsson Video Producer & Post-Production Supervisor Jonathan Jonathan Tran LoL General Manager Vincent Vincent Lewis Team Manager Westrice Jonathan Nguyen 80 Assistant Coach RapidStar Jung Min-sung (정민성) 80 Assistant Coach Reignover Kim Yeu-jin (김의진) 80 Positional Coach Gary Hoyt Sports Psychologist Maddie Maddisen Soer Videographer & Head of LoL Content IWDominate Christian Rivera 80 Streamer & Content Creator Emiru Emily Schunk Streamer & Content Creator Vienna Brittany Trafford Streamer & Content Creator

Former [ edit ]

Tournaments [ edit ]

This table shows up to the 10 most recent results. For complete results, click here.

Minimum place

Show All Show First 10



Media [ edit ]

Images [ edit ]

Cloud 9's spread in the October 2014 issue of Playboy as part of the Playboy League of Legends feature

C9 Old Logo

Cloud9's Season 3 World Championship Roster

Cloud9's 2014 LCS Roster

Cloud9's 2014 Season World Championship Roster

Cloud9's 2015 LCS Spring Roster

Cloud9's 2015 LCS Summer Roster

Cloud9's 2016 LCS Spring Roster with Bunny FuFuu

Cloud9's 2016 LCS Spring Roster with Hai

Cloud9 2016 LCS Summer Roster with Bunny FuFuu

Cloud9 2016 World Championship Roster

Cloud9 2017 LCS Spring Roster with Ray

Cloud9 2017 LCS Roster

C9's 2019 LCS Spring Roster

C9's 2019 Worlds Roster