Cloud9 has been eliminated from the 2021 League Championship Series Championship in a 3-1 loss to 100 Thieves. C9 will settle for a 3rd place finish while 100 Thieves will move on to face  the undefeated Team Liquid in the grand final.

In its 3rd place finish in the 2021 LCS Season, Cloud9 will represent North America as the #3 seed from the LCS at the World Championship in Europe this fall. The winner of the finals matchup between TL and 100 will not only take C9's spring title as LCS champion, but will also be the #1 LCS seed at Worlds 2021 while the runner-up of the LCS Championship will be slotted into the #2 seed. Because of its #3 seed status, Cloud9 will begin Worlds 2021 at the Play-In stage.

Following the loss to 100 Thieves, the players and coaches of Cloud9 joined members of the press for a LCS Championship post-match conference hosted by The Story Mob's Miles Yim to discuss the series and look ahead towards Cloud9's appearance at Worlds 2021. 

Zven, last year, you and the rest of Cloud9 were not able to attend MSI because of COVID, and the team failed to qualify for Worlds. Despite losing here, do you feel like by attending both tournaments this season, you have rectified this in some way?

I mean, it was nice to go to MSI because it was cancelled last year, but the performance that we had there wasn't so good. We didn't even make the Knockout Stage, so that sucked, but I'm happy we went. Also, I'm very happy we are going to Worlds this year. I don't think anyone thought we would lose today, but it is what it is and I'm just very happy to make it to Worlds after three years without it. More than anything, I'm grateful to go to Worlds.

mithy, everytime Cloud9 have been in the Play-In Stage at Worlds, they have escaped the Group Stage. How will you guys prepare for the Play-In teams this year, and do you think participating in the Play-In will benefit C9 at Worlds?

We will prepare for them the same way we would prepare for any other team. I don't think there is any difference. I do think that playing the Play-Ins will benefit us a lot. As of now, with the way things look for other regions, we might be having quite a lot of trouble in the Play-Ins, so we need to think of right now and get our shit together. Then, when we go through Play-Ins, it will definitely give us some good experience.

Reignover, from a coaching perspective, how did the team's competitive approach change and develop throughout the post-season?

I don't think we could make major changes in between the series because we don't have too much time. I think it was more of us just talking about what works best for us, watching their games, seeing what their weaknesses are, and then just trying to adjust in between.

Perkz, you guys were appearing to bring it back for a teamfight in game 4 until certain areas were taken advantages of in that last teamfight. From your perspective, what went wrong for the team in the end there?

I think we kind of started to have game 4 back in the bag. We were obviously really far behind, but our composition should be better than theirs 5v5. The awkward part was that I was not there at the beginning of the fight and I think I just misplayed. I should have Teleported on a different ward, in hindsight, and if I had just come from far behind them, I think we would have won the fight.

It feels kind of bad to lose the whole series off of a random fight because I honestly thought we were favored given my items at that point in the game. It sucks that we didn't really play to our standards the whole series today. We were not on the same page and I think that because of that, we didn't deserve to win.

It would have been a great story if we won that fight, because we would have probably won that game and game 5 would have been history, but since we lost, it feels really bad. We made our own bed today.

Zven, did the lack of an audience and the sudden move from Jersey to LA for playoffs have any impact on your mentality coming into the match or your performance today?

(sarcastically) No, I wanted to lose on purpose because we weren't in New Jersey, thanks for your time. [all of Cloud9 laugh]

Blaber, C9 has now secured the 3rd Worlds seed after this loss. How big of an impact does this kind of change have on your mindset and preparation heading towards Play-ins?

I don't think losing here changes my mindset or my teammates' mindsets on how we are going to prepare for Play-Ins. The Play-In teams are looking stronger every year and I don't think any of us are going to disrespect them. I think we need to be on top of our game for us to get out of Play-Ins and get to the Group Stage. I think we are going to prepare how we normally do for an opponent.

Fudge, can you consider that maybe you're going to be the sole NA team to make it into the semis?

Maybe. I don't know.

Zven, I always appreciate your ability to break down a series...I know, obviously a very tough loss. Perkz said that you guys weren't on the same page today, but I'd love to hear from you. What do you think was wrong over the course of these four games? I don't know if it was something different every time or if you just felt like there was some major flaw in the gameplay of the team that caused you guys to lose?

Um, I mean, we had different chairs today on stage. That was kind of f****d up. So, there's that. In Game 2 I broke my hands and I got caught once by Lee Sin, so that was kind of f****d up. And in Game 4 we had a s**t draft, so that's it. GG.

Hey guys—Reignover and Mithy—when when you hear and see that the guys are on different pages, and Max as well, how do you go about getting them back on the same page despite, you know, a Game 3 win that-

Perkz: (sarcastically) By first-picking Orianna. [laughs]

mithy: Well, the thing is...so for the series today, I felt like the first few games, we had a good approach on what we wanted to do against them, and how we wanted to play. And then our backup plan was picking Orianna. Well, it was actually picking Syndra, but they banned Syndra the whole series.

So after the first two games, we saw that they were very bad, but we were worse. So then we decided for Game 3 that we just go late-game and hope they're not good enough to snowball the early-game, which they weren't. And I think on Game 4, we were like a bit...was a bit too extreme. And yeah, it was just a disaster of a draft, I think.

I would like to address my question to Mithy as well. I believe it was Jack this morning who mentioned that all three teams from NA should make it out of the group stage into brackets, which is obviously a very bold claim. It's never happened before. He and all the owners expressed that NA looked better this year than in the past.

I want to talk to you as the coach, what do you think about NA's chances at Worlds, and as the most dominant NA team historically at Worlds, how do you feel about your own self?

C9 is gonna make it out, the other two...I'm not sure about.

This question goes to both mithy and Reignover. Without constant early game aggression, and particularly in Game 3, was that a point that you guys concentrated on preparing for Worlds with a ticket already in the bag?

mithy: I felt like we were a bit desperate on Game 3 and we were not actually playing as a team. But like, I felt like the early game was like very much soloqueue-ish, but we actually came out ahead and outplayed them and like we're actually stomping them. So it was good signs, right? But at the same time, I don't think it's the best way personally to play, but I think it's good that there's confidence and that there's like the will to win and like to come back, I guess.

mithy, in Games 1, 2, and four, do you think that there was a common theme on what caused you guys to lose? Or do you think it was something different, and if so, I don't know if you can speak to what the issues are that you saw today?

I think this last week we worked a lot like on the mindset of like getting better early games and being more disciplined early. And that showed on stage. We actually had pretty good Games 1 and 2. But they had like a very random team comp where they just like group us five and fight us, and we were just not able to play the map and like just play the game in a way that nullifies that from happening.

So we lost Game 1 and 2 for that. I mean, Game 2 wasn't really for that. I think Game 2 we actually did that, but then we just like misplayed. And then Game 3, we try to dumb the the team comps down so that we can team fight against them and play front-to-back and we effectively did that, and we also won laning phase. So when they were supposed to be winning. I don't know about bot lane, but the top lane at least. But yeah, that game was pretty free.

And then Game 4, we just tunneled too hard on getting another late-game team comp. And I think they even had a better late-game team comp, but they also had better early game, so it was just very, very hard game to crawl back from.

Thank you. And I appreciate you guys taking the time for the press conference, by the way, as an aside, I know we all do.

I kinda want to ask this one to Fudge. Being your first whole year on Cloud9 and closing now the chapter on your first whole LCS campaign. What are your big takeaways given that you've won a championship, fall short here in third place going into Worlds?

Um, major takeaways, I think if I'm not shitting on NA top laners in lane, then it's going to be really hard internationally. So I need to get a lot better in lane basically. That's a major thing for me.

This question goes out to everyone. Which team are you guys looking forward to facing personally in Worlds?

Vulcan: I'm looking forward to facing Fnatic if we get the chance. It'll be fun to play against Nisqy, our mid laner rom last year. And I think the matches will be entertaining for the fans and for us as well.

Perkz: I want to play DAMWON.

mithy: What about FPX?

Perkz: Nah, I don't want to say FPX, they're too good. Please move FPX out of my group. Give me DAMWON though, they are beatable. Saying that after a loss to 100 Thieves is interesting, but I say what I think. [laughs]

All images by: Erick Corona/Riot Games via ESPAT