Cloud9 faced Bilibili Gaming on Thursday in the 2023 Mid-season Invitational, and the game fueled the discussion about the gap between Eastern and Western teams.
The game was held with LPL Dana present at the Copper Box Arena in London as the North American top seed reps faced the second seeds Chinese team in three games that were straightforward.
C9 showed a bit of spectacular play in the League of Legends series in the early parts of the match, keeping up with the Chinese.
In some parts of the game C9’s superstar AD carry, Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol, went toe to toe with BLG’s Zhao “Elk” Jia-Hao in the laning phase and the later team fights. He singlehandedly kept the team up and running with individual skills with ganks from Robert “Blaber” Huang.
C9, who are LCS champions, used the early parts of the game to unsettle BLG in good roams and dives, although they fell to the team fighting and macro decision-making of BLG, which soon overwhelmed C9.
BLG’s Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin showed why he is considered the best top laner at MSI with his performance against the trio of champions like Gnar, Kennen, and Gwen.
He had 12 kills, and 17 assists, in a destructive performance in game one; the 20-year-old phenom also won the Player of the Series award. It was a worthy award to a player who was reliable on the front line, hyper-carry, or an engaging tool.
With the result, C9 has now dropped into the lower bracket at MSI 2023, and also it’s the third time a Western team will be losing to an Eastern team.
The only LCS team left in the winner’s bracket is Golden Guardians, and they face JD Gaming next early Friday.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
