Today’s matches put everything on the line for Cloud9 and Shopify Rebellion — both teams played aggressive, keeping two of the games close for quite a while. Eventually, though, momentum shifted in C9's favor — no matter the setback, the team stood strong throughout all three games. With SR out of the running, C9 has to prepare for their all-important rematch with FlyQuest, who beat them in their last head-to-head.

Game 1

Juan "Contractz" Garcia invaded early, stealing Robert "Blaber" Huang’s Blue Buff and taking both Scuttle Crabs. With botside’s support, Shopify Rebellion was able to take Chemtech Drake without issue, but all three Void Grubs were taken down by Cloud9. A gutsy tower dive as five from C9 scored them First Blood. Shopify clapped back and snagged three kills just after, securing the Feat of Warfare for the underdogs. One more kill went their way.

As the second Dragon of the game spawned, the kills evened out. Blaber secured Cloud Drake without contention, since most of Shopify Rebellion was dead from a surprise five man near the Drake Pit. Fudge tore down Cloud9’s botside turret, claiming the Feats of Strength along with the boot buff for Shopify Rebellion. Rift Herald went to Shopify Rebellion thanks to some smart warding keeping an eye on C9. Denilson "Ceos" Oliveira killed Zven in mid, earning them yet another turret.

A fight broke out over Ocean Drake, with two early deaths on Shopify Rebellion’s side leading to a free Drake for Blaber. Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme and Lee "Loki" Sang-min got caught out by the entirety of SR, but Ceos fell shortly after — though the costs on both sides were significant, SR was left outnumbered. They were forced to give up Atakhan.

In botside jungle, Cloud9 eviscerated two three members of Shopify Rebellion thanks to a sneaky double Seismic Shove from Loki. A second Ocean Drake went to Cloud9 without any members of SR present.

The teams traded back and forth, taking out Contractz alone, while Park "Thanatos" Seung-gyu shredded through Shopify Rebellion’s midlane turret. As a third Ocean Drake came up, SR got aced heading to the objective, and Cloud9 secured Soul. A skirmish in topside jungle left the two teams one-for-one.

Cloud9 pushed mid, taking Bvoy down in the process before clearing out mid’s inhibitor. Vulcan went in under the two Nexus turrets, killing Cristian "Palafox" Palafox just before taking the game.

Game 2

While the early game was rather calm, Blaber was able to take a kill botside following the regularly scheduled laneswap. Contractz took down the three Void Grubs, but Cloud9 got Mountain Drake. A stolen Azir ult from Loki took down Palafox just before C9 took their second Dragon of the game. Two more kills went to Cloud9 before they took Rift Herald, giving them the Feats of Strength.

Cloud9 took their third Drake of the game. Sitting five kills and almost all objectives up, the gold lead sat around 3k gold. A teamfight started in botside jungle, but neither team took a kill. Shopify Rebellion started Atakhan, but got chased off by Vulcan’s Bard ultimate. While SR put up a good effort, Cloud9 walked away with the objective.

A strong ult from Ceos looked promising, but the damage from Cloud9 was too much. Shopify Rebellion got aced without taking a kill of their own. Seconds later, C9 took Soul. Palafox got picked off while Loki pushed botside. Loki and Thanatos fought on their own in top and mid while Blaber took Baron.

WIth one more push as five, Cloud9 took game two.

Game 3

An extended invade from Contractz looked promising, stealing Blaber’s red buff leading into a sneaky gank and two kills for Shopify Rebellion. A third kill went to SR following a 3v1 in Cloud9’s topside jungle, along with the Feat of Warfare.

Without contention, Contractz secured the first Drake of the game, but Cloud9 got a three-for-none just moments later. All of the Void Grubs went over to C9, setting the score even for objectives.

The teams clashed at Drake, but Loki had other plans. Taking both members of Shopify Rebellion’s botlane down with ease, Cloud9 was able to take the objective along with the Feat of First Turret. With Rift Herald in hand, C9 completed the battle for the Feats of Strength, pulling the momentum firmly into their favor.

Blaber dropped Rift Herald botside, taking out a turret botside before being driven mid. The teams traded kills one-for-one as Loki put in damage on Shopify Rebellion’s midlane tier three turret. Cloud9 two-manned Atakhan as the rest of the team pushed mid, pushing the gold lead to over 8,000.

Shopify took two kills, but lost three of their members in a topside skirmish.The bloodshed ditn’t stop in SR’s jungle, with Blaber’s double kill. Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen chased Contractz from midlane to botside scuttle to secure another kill. Baron got started as SR’s chances to come back ended. Pushing as five with Baron, Cloud9 punched their ticket to finals.

Until Tomorrow

Despite Cloud9’s victory coming quickly, Shopify Rebellion fought hard. Unfortunately for them, C9 rolled with the punches just a bit better at some key moments, leading to snowballing victories. Though SR is out until Summer split, third place isn't an unimpressive finish for a team expected to lose out in regular season. LTAN Finals start tomorrow!

We will be here for the latest on Cloud9 vs. FlyQuest tomorrow at 1 PM US Pacific!