Cloud9 & Will “Meteos” Hartman, The Perfect Re-coupling!

On Sunday night, after all of week three’s games had been played and with 100 Theives going 2-0 for the week and joint top for the split with a 4-2 record, news dropped they had traded starting Jungler Will "Meteos" Hartman to Flyquest for their Academy Jungler Andy “Anda” Haoung. To add insult to injury for Meteos, he’s been informed by Flyquest that they intend to continue with their starting  Jungler Lucas "Santorin" Tao Kilmer Larsen, leaving him to play in the Academy team. With Meteos rightfully not wanting to drop down a skill level after his performances in season 8, should it be time for Cloud9 to bring him for a third time during the Rift Rivals International break?

If we look at Cloud9 since the end of the Spring split, you'll see that the team are missing a few key aspects that they need to address. Below are the some of the area's of where Meteos will benefit the team if he was to return.

Leader Of The New School

The first thing that is most noticeable is that right now they don’t have a leader. Joshua “Jatt” Leesman shared that there has been 6 games during the Summer split where a team has had a 3k+ gold lead, but have then gone on to lose the game. Cloud9 account for four of these! Considering that Cloud9’s are currently 1-5 having played a hybrid of academy and first team players, it shows that the potential and mechanics of being a 5-1 team instead of their current 1-5 record are definitely there. However, the team haven’t got a Hai or Lemonnation the previously had to set up the drive or the team fight that’s required to end games.

Since his return from semi-retirement, Meteos has come back more determined to go to another World Championship but also to use his experience to help a team move forward as the leader. He proved this during his time on 100Thieves by helping them place first in the regular season and runner up the Spring Split playoffs. He did this by leading by example with the best KDA for all Junglers at 4.9, least deaths with 30 and second in kill participation with an incredible 76%. This leading from the front style is exactly what the team need towards the end of a game, when it comes to finishing off their opponents at the period of time it matters the most.

In The Jungle, The Not So Mighty Jungle

Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen has been woeful in the Jungle this split. He currently has the joint highest deaths as a Jungler (With Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett) and currently joint second out of all players, a KDA of only 2.1 which makes him last out of all qualifying Junglers and while he leads all Junglers in CS per minute and CS total, he’s also played 20 minutes more than any other Jungler in the league. Meteos is currently fifth in KDA with an average of 3.3, fifth in deaths at 13 and although he's fifth in CS per minute and seventh in CS Total. 100Theives have been more open to the funnel strategy that's become increasingly popular in the LCS this split. He’s a good early and late game Jungler, that has the ability to read the game in the moment and ganks the correct lanes at the correct time.

My C9

Let’s be honest, the spilt didn’t start well for the team with Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, Andy "Smoothie" Ta and Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi all being moved to the bench due to reported commitment issues that resulted in players from the Academy team consistently outperforming them on a regular basis. This has caused a rare disconnect between the organisation and the fans and with the current line up not living up to fan expectations and head coach Han-Gyu "Reapered" Bok not providing the level of information they require, it's led to the use of a unfavourable hashtag against the current lineup.

Bringing back Meteos means that the fans do get to see a fan favourite and one of the original members return. He's played with Smoothie, Sneaky and Jensen in his previous stint with in the team. While there has been a previous history between Jensen and Meteos, I feel that this is something that they would be able to leave in the past to move the team forward in the right direction and Meteos and the bot lane have always had a good connection and ability to work together to win their lane.

While the story of where will Meteos play may go on for a while, there's one thing that is certain. That the majority of the Cloud9 fan base would like to see Meteos come back to the team and that the time to for the team to do this would be now, to try and turn this split around and attempt to get the team into the playoffs.

(You can find more esport content on Twitter over @haloofthoughts)

(Picture Credit; Riot Games)