The last meeting between these two teams was a three-game, closely fought series. This time around however, Cloud 9 were able to take a decisive victory against FlyQuest, showing that their previous 0-2 week was nothing more than a bump in the road.
Simply put: Cloud 9 outplayed FlyQuest. Better drafts, and better in-game execution, made the difference for C9 and gave them the edge against FLY. They repeatedly proved that they could outrotate and outfight FlyQuest, taking convincing wins that demonstrate beyond a doubt that they're learned from their mistakes in week 5.
"After coming off the 0-2 week we found out why we were struggling," said Smoothie after the game. "We blamed all our losses on pick and ban, [but] we weren't playing to the correct objectives. Now that we have a direction to learn from, we're going to be a lot better next time for sure"
Contractz was the MVP for Cloud 9 this series, picking up three early kills for his team in game 1 and providing all the backline threat that C9 needed in game 2. While his 8/5/9 KDA isn't much to look at, make no mistake - without his contributions, Cloud 9 don't get off to the early start that they needed to succeed. Sneaky also had a fantastic series, dominating Altec and LemonNation on Ezreal and picking up a well-deserved 7/3/18 KDA on the Prodigal Explorer.
Game 1's story was essentially Impact's story. Plenty of early pressure - and early dives - from Contractz gave Impact's Camille all the power she needed to become an unstoppable splitpushing menace. FLY had no one that could answer her and were forced to yield tower after tower to Cloud 9 while they leveraged Impact's pressure. A desperation Baron was FlyQuest's last-ditch effort, but Jensen was able to leap into the pit and kill Moon before he could Smite and stole the buff out from under FLY's noses. It was all Cloud 9 needed to end the game soon after.
The next match was a much closer affair. Cloud 9 jumped out to a quick gold lead thanks to Contractz's jungling, but a risky Baron play from FlyQuest kept them from falling too far behind. However, the buff just wasn't enough to overcome FlyQuest's lack of initiation and they fumbled to take objectives even when empowered by Baron. A second Baron - and an Elder Dragon buff - also weren't enough for FlyQuest to break into Cloud 9's base, and they frequently took bad fights off the back of their sieges. After outlasting FlyQuest's power plays, Cloud 9 were able to secure a Baron of their own and immediately take a fight on the backside, acing FLY and ending the game in short order.
