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Cloud9 used patience and clean shot calling to defeat Team Envy 2-1 on Sunday during Week 8, Day 3 of the North America League of Legends Spring Split in Los Angeles.
Game 1 became interesting before it even got started as Nam "LirA" Tae-yoo brought out the off-meta jungle champion of Nidalee. LirA quickly showed the power of his pick as he took first blood on a mid lane gank of Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen's Cassiopeia. By the time the match was over, the surprise pick proved to be the right one as LirA was player of the game and had a 100 percent kill participation with a 10/1/8 KDA (kills/deaths/assists). Additionally Envy (3-13, 12-27) was rewarded with Apollo "Apollo" Prince's Ziggs pick at ADC despite the risks associated with the champion. In the end he had a 5/2/6 KDA by the time NV broke the Cloud9 (12-4, 27-13) Nexus.
Game 2 was a much more slow and controlled for both teams. At 10 minutes there were zero kills and zero turrets taken by either team. First blood did not come until Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong exploded for a double kill plus an assist just after the 16-minute mark. The story of the game was Cloud9 waiting for NV to make unforced errors which it then transitioned to taking objectives. C9 won with patience, accumulating a number of small advantages instead of trying to force big plays in 50/50 situations, pushing the series to a deciding Game 3. Jensen made up for a relatively weak showing in Game 1 by playing strong on Zed in Game 2 for a 6/1/7 KDA.
The last game of the series picked up where the second left off. Game 3 also featured a slow and controlled early, mid, and late game by Cloud9 on its way to a 55-minute victory. The game could've easily went NV's way if it weren't for Juan "Contractz" Garcia's precise play, winning 50/50 smite fights at Baron, then Elder Dragon a few minutes later deep into late game. Additionally, Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi played clean, posting an 4/0/6 KDA on Ezreal, leveraging perfect positioning into critical kills for his team.
Cloud9 will try to keep its second place position intact vs.Team Dignitas (8-8, 20-20) Friday, March 24 at 6:00 p.m. ET. Envy hopes to avoid the NA LCS relegation tournament as it takes on Echo Fox (5-11, 13-25) Saturday, March 25 at 6:00 p.m. ET.