When Cloud9 announced Nick “LS” De Cesare as their head coach this off season, fans immediately started pondering on how he might add flavor to the League Championship Series with his ideas around gameplay and the champion draft. In his very first game with the team on Saturday, he picked Ivern mid for Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami.
yeah this is an LS draft LOL #LCS
— Barento (@razlol) February 6, 2022
For his whole career, LS has been outspoken about what he values in competitive League of Legends. He has been largely critical of the limited meta and champ pool that is often seen across regions, highlighting champions that could — and in his mind, should — work in a meta.
Over the years, through his time on the League of Legends Champions Korea official broadcast and his stream, he amassed a large following, which eventually became the Church of LS. Two League pros, Fudge and Sebastian “Malice” Edholm were a part of that group, both of whom are on Cloud9 this year.
Some of his most well-loved tenets of the Church were disdain for Renekton and Morellonomicon and praise for mechanically skilled pros’ mouse movements and Liandry’s Torment, of course, along with his disdain for poor drafting.
With LS’s addition to the competitive scene, the community focused all eyes on him and Cloud9. Members of the church were excited to see his ideas finally get implemented, and those who he calls “sinners” were eager to see if he’d fail.
Mid lane Ivern is something LS has talked about for a few years, specifically noting the pick’s viability in competitive play. He specifically cites how the champ has a strong ability to freeze — another Church of LS staple — has strong gank assist and is really safe. Ivern’s passive also allows his jungler to take the buffs rather than giving up the experience and gold to his laners.
Ivern also gets to build fully supportive, which not only allows for a cheap item build, but allows for more champion diversity in other roles on Ivern’s team.
And with one of the main heralds of his church in the mid lane in LS’s first LCS game, he drafted Ivern mid. It was the perfect spot for it. With two hyper scaling carries in Gwen and Aphelios, Ivern had great targets to support.
Cloud9 and LS won the opener against Golden Guardians (and a Renekton, to boot) despite only arriving in the country a few days before the season started. They play a strong-looking Evil Geniuses in their second game which will likely prove a more difficult opponent. Watch the match live at 5:30 pm ET on lolesports.com.
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