Cloud9 Survived a Six-Day-Old Roster to Answer Their Own Question
Cloud9 beat Fluxo W7M 2-1 in Play-Ins Upper Round 1, dropping Lotus to a roster signed six days earlier before closing it out on Breeze and Split.
I asked after the 100 Thieves sweep whether Cloud9's turn was real or a one-night thing. Play-Ins gave them a chance to answer, and the answer came with more sweat than I expected.
The Scare Nobody Saw Coming
Fluxo W7M signed their entire roster, the LA MASIA core out of Brazil's Challengers scene, six days before this match. Six days. And they took Lotus off Cloud9 anyway, 13-7. Watching that map, the "real turn or fluke" question looked like it was about to get answered in the worst way possible.
Then Cloud9 Looked Like Cloud9 Again
Breeze and Split were a different team. 13-4 both times, OXY named MVP running Neon like he had somewhere else to be. That's the version of this roster I wrote about a week ago, the one that showed up once against 100 Thieves. This time it showed up twice in a row, in the round that actually decides who's still alive for Shanghai.
Where I Land
A scare against a roster that didn't exist a week earlier isn't nothing. If Cloud9 were truly back, Lotus doesn't happen. But I said last time the real test was whether the form held past one night, and two series later, it has. I'm less interested in the map they dropped than the two they didn't, given how comfortable those scorelines looked. Play-Ins keeps going and so does the question, but for now I'll take a 2-1 with a shaky first map over another loss that ends the story early.