Cloud9 finally turned the tides to their favor with a massive win over Infinity Esports at the 2021 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational.

After Cloud9’s first-ever win in the MSI Group Stage, Luka “Perkz” Perković shared his thoughts on the victory and the current mid lane meta with shoutcaster Laure Valée.

Cloud9 Perkz on why he chose Tristana

Despite having strong performances in the first two days of MSI, Perkz knew that they were working with substantially harder win conditions. They were fielding compositions that were hard to execute and relied on winning all their lanes.

Heading into their match against Infinity Esports, Perkz admitted that their 0-2 start in the Group Stage pushed them to play safer as a whole. When asked about Tristana, the mid laner saw her as an easy-to-pick champion that fits into their draft.

“Today we just had a comfort composition that we just know we’re going to win if we don’t do anything stupid,” Perkz said. “I think that’s the biggest difference-maker.”



How teams are going about the mid lane meta at MSI

In terms of the meta, Perkz has noticed that the mid lane is no longer the focal point of the team composition.

“I think the mid lane is kind of weak right now,” said the Cloud9 player. “It’s just picking what fits for the composition and usually facilitating your jungler on what he wants to play with.”

Perkz’s comment rings true amongst other teams in the competition, with the mid lane position already having 15 different champion picks. Even in the case of Tristana, many believe that mid lane AD champions are more popular than mid lane AP champions.

Unicorns of Love mid laner Lev “Nomanz” Yakshin dove deeper into the state of the mid lane in relation to MSI’s patch 11.9.

“You will find that Nidalee, Morgana, Rumble, or even Udyr are champions that deal a lot of magic damage and are hot picks in the jungler position,” said Nomanz. “In a meta that leverages the power of AP-oriented junglers, you have to play mid lane AD champions to add damage to your team or play control mage champions to team up with Udyr and bring an advantage.”

Photo of Nomanz of Unicorns of Love during MSI 2021
Credit: LoL Esports

Despite the drastic changes made by patch 11.9, Perkz thinks that Cloud9 has a strong chance of beating teams since MSI’s in-meta champions are similar to their usual picks during the 2021 LCS Spring Split.

Cloud9 will face Royal Never Give up on May 15 at midnight GMT+8 in the MSI rumble stage.

You can catch the action on the official Riot Games Twitch channel.

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