Showdown in the NA LCS: Cloud9 vs. Echo Fox

A tie-breaker is always a good game to watch, and a tie-breaker where the winner will get to claim sole possession of first place, now that is really something to watch. Echo Fox have been the dominant team in the NA LCS to this point, but slowly creeping up the ladder behind them has been Cloud9.

Both teams have accumulated a near perfect game record of eight wins, one loss, though while Echo Fox lost in week three to Counter Logic gaming, Cloud9 lost in week two, to Echo Fox. Let’s take a look at how their last game against one another went, and see if history will repeat itself in this clash of titans.

In their previous game, Cloud9 managed to secure the early lead with support Andy “Smoothie” Ta and jungler Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen both collapsing onto Echo Fox’s mid laner Kim “Fenix” jae-hun. Cloud9 then went on to secure quite a few map objectives, including two turrets, a Dragon and the Rift Herald, before Echo Fox was able to respond with a turret and Dragon of their own.

Things seemed to be going Cloud9’s way until a team fight went poorly, with Cloud9 trading the lives of their AD Carry, support and top laner, all for the AD Carry of Echo Fox. More objectives secured by Cloud9 seemed to get the ball rolling again in their favour, until another skirmish saw them lose two members for nothing, followed by a team fight that saw them lose four members to Echo Fox top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon’s Gnar rampage.

Cloud9 forced an engage at Baron, and while they secured it, they ultimately paid quite the cost, as Echo Fox was able to take the lives of four members of Cloud9 for only two of their own, almost negating any advantage that the Baron would give.

At this point, Echo Fox was on a roll, erasing the gold lead that Cloud9 had built up and beginning to rapidly secure objectives all over the map. With another major team fight at Baron that saw Echo Fox claim the prize and the lives of four members of Cloud9, they were then able to move onto the Elder Dragon, seizing that before beginning to attack the base of Cloud9.

A desperate defence by Cloud9 paid off as although Echo Fox managed to destroy much of their infrastructure, they also lost four members of their team. This bought time for Cloud9 to attempt to regroup, although they would not be able to leave the base to secure any more objectives. A final fight between the two teams saw Echo Fox push into the base of Cloud9, and although most of them died, their support Adrian “Adrian” Ma was able to end the game, placing Echo Fox firmly in the top spot.

The last time these two teams fought it was a blood bath, with Echo Fox ultimately emerging as the stronger of the two teams. Both of these teams have had some tough battles since then, and both have shown marked improvement, though ultimately only one of these teams will come out ahead tomorrow.

For more on Echo Fox and their surprise pick of Yasuo in today’s match, check out our article here, or for more information on when you can watch these two teams go head to head, check out the official schedule page here.