Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen revealed the reasons why Cloud9 didn’t perform as well as he expected at this year’s 2023 Mid-Season Invitational, pointing at strategy and team synergy as some of the issues.
He opened up about the team’s run in an interview with Travis Gafford published on May 22, after C9 lost to eventual runner-ups Bilibili Gaming and Gen.G in the loser’s bracket. They lost every game in under 30 minutes and failed to live up to expectations as North America’s No. 1 seed.
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The Danish support said the team had a draft disadvantage against Gen.G and that the Korean team’s playstyle took them by surprise. He also mentioned team synergy as an issue that cost them games.
“Before 10 minutes the game was already, like, we already lost,” he said, due to various team decisions that didn’t bear fruit. “Bad things happen as a team and they take over.” He added the team couldn’t communicate efficiently when they were getting dominated by the opposition.
Zven also expressed disappointment and frustration at not being able to show what Cloud9 had prepared ahead of the tournament. “I’m sad that we couldn’t at least show something because we are much better than this,” he told Travis Gafford. “I don’t think we played well at all.”
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He concluded by mentioning that the team was going on a break before competing in the LCS Summer Split, which will start on June 1, but that he’ll keep practicing on the ladder until then instead.
C9 will step onto the LCS stage again when they face off against fellow MSI team Golden Guardians on June 1, at 4pm CT.