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Cloud9 showed off impeccable control Friday throughout its 2-1 series victory over Phoenix1 to begin Week 7, Day 1 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split in Los Angeles.
Cloud9 (7-6, 18-15 match record) drafted the new champion Kayn in Game 1 for jungler Juan "Contractz" Garcia, and he didn't disappoint. Contractz set the pace as he secured first blood with a gank just under three minutes in to begin his snowballing gold lead. Cloud9 cruised through the mid game as it dominated teamfights and took objectives. Phoenix1 picked up a few kills defending its Nexus, but that barely slowed down Cloud9. A near-ace around the 25-minute mark was all Cloud9 needed before ending the Game 1 slaughter.
Phoenix1 (3-10, 13-22 match record) banned away the Kayn in Game 2 and drafted a scaling "protect-the-Sivir" team composition featuring two of the top tier tank champions, Cho'Gath and Maokai. However, P1's team needed time to scale into its terrifying late game -- a difficult task given its rough start.
Cloud9 tried to keep the tempo that it had in Game 1, using its team composition's global ultimates to make early rotations. Those rotations let it knock down three turrets in the bottom lane by the 17-minute mark. C9 started to struggle in teamfights, though, once the Rift opened up, losing engages and losing out on objectives. Phoenix1 tied up the series after wiping the floor with C9 around the Baron pit, winning the teamfight 4-0 and then pushing to end the game.
In the Game 3 draft, C9 took Kayn again and some slow-scaling damage carries while P1 answered with another tank-heavy team composition. The early game was again defined by Phoenix1's poor macro decisions, as it gave up more objectives than it got in lane swaps and lost a teamfight after making a bad decision to get an Infernal Drake.
Cloud9 was able to out-rotate P1, knocking down all six outer turrets 16-minutes in with minimal resistance. There weren't many teamfights throughout the mid game, but when they broke out Phoenix1 got destroyed by Cloud9. Though things were looking bleak, P1 bought itself time with a Baron steal by top laner Derek "Zig" Shao's Cho'Gath and a 5-2 teamfight victory, a byproduct of an overly aggressive C9 move for an inhibitor. Cloud9 shrugged off the misstep, pulling itself back together after being aced to methodically siege through the remnants of P1's base and close out the series.
Phoenix1 will hope to bounce back against Team Liquid on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET, while Cloud9's climb in the standings has Team Dignitas in its way on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.