Cloud9 beats Golden Guardians with big playoff implications

Cloud9 is still in the fight for the playoff bye.

C9 is fighting until the very end of the spring pslit. The squad secured a crucial victory versus Golden Guardians and are still in the race for a pass to the semifinals.

Jungler Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen spent the early game on the bottom side of the jungle. He made sure to invade Golden Guardians’ side of the map and kept Juan “Contractz” García away from the bottom lane.

Svenskeren’s constant presence forced Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun and Victor “FBI” Huang to play a more passive style in lane. The duo managed to absorb this pressure even when C9 collapsed as five.

In the top lane, Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell on Tristana got the best of Eric “Licorice” Ritchie. Hauntzer grew a significant gold advantage and took the top turret while Licorice was forced to watch.

C9 regrouped and forced team fights in response, and Golden Guardians gave up one kill after another. Despite having the strongest player in the game on their side, the team in blue and yellow couldn’t manage to properly play around Hauntzer.

C9 waited for Hauntzer to move to the side lanes to start the fights. Golden Guardians took a step back as C9 took over the map. After collecting several kills, the C9 players were back in the game and not even Hauntzer could stop them.

Golden Guardians showed some signs of life in the jungle. They forced a team fight of their own and immediately picked off one of the C9 players. In the middle of the chaos, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer on Akali jumped in and took out three enemies. C9 turned that team fight into a baron and the win.

The result puts C9 in third place with a chance to get the playoff bye if CLG loses versus 100 Thieves.  The race for playoffs is closer than ever with three teams tied for fifth place. CLG, C9, TSM, and Team Liquid have already secured their spots for the next stage of the competition.