Who will come out on top in this battle of two LCS giants, FlyQuest or Cloud9?

Cloud9 vs FlyQuest kicks off Saturday, March 23, with the winner punching their ticket to the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational. Both teams had very different opening best-of-fives; the question is, which team will come out on top? ESTNN previews the biggest storylines going into Cloud9 vs. FlyQuest in the Upper Bracket of the 2024 LCS Spring Split playoffs.

Will Fudge Maintain His Hot Form?

One of the biggest surprises of the Cloud9 vs 100 Thieves series was the return to superstar form from Fudge. The Australian top laner picked up player of the series as he humbled LCS’s rising star in General Sniper. Fudge had seventeen kills across the three games, only dying once as Cloud9 put the LCS’s second seed from the regular season to the sword. As mentioned, it was a return to form for Fudge, who hasn’t been having a terrible split but has not been setting the LCS on fire like in years past. Fudge played three champions in the 3-0 as he ensured Sniper could never breathe. There had been some rumblings Fudge has been playing the Twisted Fate top a lot in scrims, and we were treated to the pick in game one. Fudge was essential to the early-game snowball as he constantly found kicks with the TF.

Now, Fudge is going up against a different kettle of fish in Bwipo, whom Fudge recently got the better of in the last Cloud9 vs. FlyQuest matchup. C9 could guard off an early FlyQuest dive that was being teased, allowing Blaber to abuse how strong the Renekton and Nidalee combination is. Renekton could be key in this matchup, and it will be interesting to see if Cloud9 bans it away. Bwipo went 3-0 on the champion against Team Liquid.

Will jojopyun dominate Jensen?

Cloud9 slaughtered 100 Thieves by every stretch of the imagination; there wasn’t a moment from memory where 100 Thieves had a lead in any lane during the three games they played. Quid has been a monster this split and is in the running to win an MVP award. However, how Jojopyun handled Quid easily should ooze confidence in both C9’s players and its fans. Quid never got a sniff in that series, resorting to Yasuo in game three, which seemed a desperation pick rather than something he was confident would win his team the game. This neutralization allowed Cloud9 to be proactive across the map, with Quid and River unable to have an impact.

Jojoypun and Cloud9 now face Jensen, who is coming off a fantastic series against Team Liquid. It will be really interesting to see the mid-lane matchups we could get. Both Jensen and Jojo had multiple champion picks in their respective series, and it will be hard for either player to be banned out. When it comes to the playoffs, this is when Jensen turns up the volume, he had a decent regular season, but it is the playoffs where he has historically shone the brightest.

Marn’s Predictions for Cloud9 vs FlyQuest

This is a very hard matchup to predict, mainly because of the top lane and bottom lane consistency for Cloud9. We have seen at their peak the potential of this roster, the question is can they do this for a second consecutive series in a row? Berserker and Vulcan looked incredible in lane against 100 Thieves, which on paper they should be, but that hasn’t always been the case with this roster. They seem to have developed a way to get Lucian into the team, which is one of Berserker’s preferred picks. Vulcan hasn’t lost many if any, games of Nami this split, and when paired with the Lucian, the Cloud9 bottom lane has looked much better. It seems Berseker doesn’t always want to play the scaling pick that performs well in fights, and the team has struggled to get Berserker away from the scaling picks.

C9 must not allow Smolder to get through the ban phase. This is just an absurd champion, even if the team is behind. We saw in their game against 100 Thieves the amount of damage Smolder was putting out, even at 10k gold down. It just has the ability to change the fight thanks to his little elder dragon ability. I think the key to a C9 victory in this game is to shut down the top side for FlyQuest. In their last regular season game, Inspired was taken completely out of the game, and C9 was able to shut down the FlyQuest top lane. Fudge needs to show the same level he did both in their last match against FlyQuest and also against 100 Thieves. There was a lot of pressure in that series for Fudge to be more of a veteran and shut down the hotshot rookie who was high on confidence.

I think I am going to go Cloud9 3-2. Jojopyun is showing up big for the team, and now, with help from his team, this is a series Cloud9 can now realistically win.