Team WE vs Cloud9 Worlds 2017 quarterfinal recap

The quarterfinals of the 2017 League of Legends World Championship have come to a close as Team WE take down Cloud9 in the final series of the weekend.

The series was a constant back and forth, fitting in perfectly with some of the other extremely tense series we have seen so far in this stage of the tournament. Cloud9 played well in the series, particularly in their wins which came during games two and three. The team entered the series with a strong gameplan, but it wasn’t enough as Team WE showed superior adaptation as the series progressed.

Team WE’s dominance in the last two games of the series showed that the success they enjoyed during their dominant Group Stage wasn’t a fluke and that they really were a team deserving of a top four spot at the World Championship.

Team WE will advance to the tournament’s semifinals and play Samsung Galaxy next weekend for a chance to play in the Finals.

Game One

Winner: Team WE

10 minutes into this game it would have seemed impossible that C9 could lose, but after everything was said and done in the nearly 55 minute game, that’s exactly what happened. Cloud9 pulled off a fantastic early game, mostly because of the Aurelion Sol, but failed to take any meaningful advantage from it. Meanwhile, Team WE simply picked a counter champion in their bottom lane Vayne and battled all the way back, through some incredible ults.

Game Two

Winner: Cloud9

The 2017 World Championship has been all about creative pick and bans and how teams play around them. This game, Cloud9 proved they could get in on that theme too as they blind pick Singed top lane and it worked wonders putting WE’s Maokai too far down to save his team during teamfights. C9 simply played safe until they were confident they could win, then they moved towards objetives like Baron and dragon and took down WE over and over again.

Game Three

Winner: Cloud9

For the first time in the series so far, one team started the game by doing well and actually won. Despite picking losing lanes, Cloud9 won the early game handily, thanks to one incredible bottom lane fight, and turned the gold lead they earned on Tristana into an unstoppable objective taking force without ever over-committing helping C9 take the cleanest game of the series so far.

Game Four

Winner: Team WE

Now it’s WE’s chance to take a commanding victory. WE selected the most standard draft of any team so far in this series and they played it perfectly holding Cloud9 back from getting any meaningful objectives and taking almost elusively low risk high reward teamfights that they won easily.

Game Five

Winner: Team WE

It’s hard not to feel like Cloud9 lost this match during the draft. Giving away Kog’Maw, one of WE’s favorite carries, Janna, everyone’s favorite support, and Galio, a strong midlaner that offers some of the strongest counter engage in the game, put North America’s only remaining team at a significant disadvantage before the game even started. Even though Cloud9 picked their fights well and kept a focus on objectives, Samsung’s composition simply made it impossible for Galio to die as the game got a late, and the pick helped carry Royal Never Give Up to the semifinals.