In the midst of the fierce competition that took place last weekend in the 2021 League of Legends Championship Series Mid-Season Showdown, another 2021 LCS Spring Split award was given out. Cloud9's coaching staff won the Coaching Staff of the Split Award after the team's 1st place finish in Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin's first split as head coach. 

C9's coaching staff had a lot to work with coming into 2021, but a lot of expectations, too. After four and a half years as head coach, Bok "Reapered" Han-Gyu parted ways with the team after missing out on the League of Legends World Championship for the first time in the organization's history. Former professional jungler and C9 Academy head coach Reignover was promoted to the LCS, and former professional support and head coach of Fnatic in 2020 Alphonso "Mithy" Aguirre was added.

Cloud9 didn't stop there, however. After all, C9 defined the offseason by signing mid laner Luka "Perkz" Perković, and a robust staff would be vital in properly integrating a player of Perkz's transformative qualities to create a 'new' roster despite retaining 3/5 of its players from 2020. 

Max Waldo was brought onto the staff to work with Perkz and his teammates on specific strategic nuances to competitive play, and Marius "Veigar v2" Aune was brought on as the positional coach to round out the Cloud9 staff remotely.

After finishing 1st in the LCS Spring Split and heading into the LCS Mid-Season Showdown as the favorite to represent North America at the Mid-Season Invitational, C9's staff has certainly done its part to win the Coaching Staff of the Split award in the eyes of the voters, and the players have had good things to say, too.

"It's hard to balance four coaches, but I think they've been doing a good job of it so far. Our reviews and our draft meetings have been getting shorter, but better," Zven explained in an interview with Inven Global during the 2021 LCS Spring Split.

"I think the more time we spend with our coaches, the better things will become. I feel comfortable about our projected progression throughout the Spring Split because our coaching staff is so good."

Since 2017, Cloud has won the award as won it a staggering five times in eight splits, but this is the first time that the organization has won the award without Reapered at the helm.