Photo: DreamHack
After eleven games, Cloud9 got on the board, despite being a man short.
On paper, Cloud9 (0-2) vs. G2 Esports (2-0) should’ve been a clear victory for the ATLC champions. The winners of multiple GosuAwards for best team had shown impeccable communication and teamwork in the previous week of ESL’s Trinity Series and there were no signs of them ever slowing down.
Opposite them on Wednesday, Feb. 1, stood Cloud9, yet to win a game in the league and one player down due to Drew “TidesofTime” Biessener unable to show up for the crucial match. One tense series later, however, Cloud9 completed the upset, beating G2 in eleven games.
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A crucial part in C9’s victory played their revised communication strategy. One of the Trinity Series fundamentals is that all three players on a team actively converse with each other, discussing every move and possible play, but not C9 in that match. Left alone, James “Firebat” Kostesich and Cong “StrifeCro” Shu kept to themselves for the majority of the games, only exchanging brief lines of thought and ideas before playing out the turn.
“Brains don’t combine additively,” wrote StrifeCro on Twitter after the hard-fought victory, and this might be true for more teams than Cloud9. Other competitors such as Alliance had not put up the expected results so far, despite each of its three players being decorated 1v1 competitors.
Speaking of Alliance, the Swedish trio also got on the board on Wednesday night after a demolishing 6-2 against Tempo Storm. Crucial to Alliance’s success were the RenoMage piloted by world champion Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall which took five games in a row, putting Alliance on match point by game six.
In spite of recording their second loss in a row, Tempo Storm are still determined to establish a new meta in the Trinity Series. The team was responsible for the first portrayal of Kun/C’Thun Druid, Handlock and Pirate Paladin in weeks 1-2 and last night they were seen playing Freeze Mage (debuted in Trinity Series by Virtus.pro) and Zoo – an archetype which hasn’t been played for months. With a score of 1-2 (-6), however, Tempo Storm are in urgent need of recovery if they want to contest a playoffs berth.
As week three comes to an end tonight, Feb. 2, at least one team will approach the mid-point with a 3-0 score, as the undefeated compLexity and Luminosity Gaming face off.
