Cloud9 makes history with win over Afreeca Freecs at 2018 LoL World Championship
With a dominating 3-0 win over the Afreeca Freecs, Cloud9 became the first NA LCS team in League of Legends history to advance to the semifinals of Worlds.
During any international LoL tournament, China and South Korea routinely dominate while both Europe and North America are forced to sit on the sidelines and watch everyone else have all the fun.
At Worlds 2018, though, things haven’t gone according to that plan in the least bit.
Less than 24 hours after Europe’s G2 Esports upset China’s Royal Never Give Up to advance to the quarterfinals, Cloud9 managed to pull off what many thought was impossible with an absolutely dominant performance over Afreeca, South Korea’s No. 2 seed.
From the very beginning of the series, Cloud9 looked to be playing with a chip on its shoulder, giving Afreeca no room at all to breathe.
Try as Afreeca did, they simply looked dazed and confused against the unexpected fire coming from the North American side all night long.
With the key pieces of jungler Dennis ‘Svenskeren’ Johnsen, mid laner Nicolaj ‘Jensen’ Jensen, and AD carry Zachary ‘Sneaky’ Scuderi all playing their absolute best, there was just nothing Afreeca could do.
For every step that Afreeca took, Cloud9 was right there to push back, eventually closing out a big 3-0 victory on the back of one final teamfight.
With the win, Cloud9 has become the first team from the NA LCS to reach the semis at any World Championship. Cloud9 has previously been to the quarterfinals four different times before finally managing to break through here in 2018.
That wasn’t the only record to be made, however, as Afreeca’s loss ensures that there will not be a representative from South Korea in the grand finals this year, something that has never happened since South Korea began attending Worlds during Season 2 in 2012.
Cloud9 will now await their semifinals opponent, which will either be Europe’s Fnatic or China’s EDward Gaming. G2 Esports and Invictus Gaming are set to faceoff on the other side of the semifinal bracket.