Cloud9 names LS new League of Legends head coach ahead of 2022 season
Cloud9 has finally confirmed a rumor that had been spreading for weeks by announcing on Wednesday that they had hired Nick “LS” De Cesare as the new League of Legends head coach ahead of the 2022 season. LS replaced Mithy who joined 100 Thieves.
LS’ profile and experience
LS is a prominent figure in the League of Legends community, thanks to his intriguing analysis of the gameplay of professional teams from across the game’s major regions. The last time LS coached a team in a major region was nearly three years ago, for Korean League of Legends Champions squad “bbq Olivers” in 2019. Prior to coaching the Korean team, his first helm was with SUPA HOT CREW of the EU LCS in 2014. He then became the head coach of Gravity of the North America LCS in 2015.
It was rumored back in 2020 that LS would accept T1’s offer as their coach for League of Legends, but the rumor faced strong reactions from T1 fans. LS decline the offer and joined the team as a content creator and streamer instead, spending the last two League of Legends professional seasons in the position.
Along the way, LS formed relationships with a number of top-level players and coaches including Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle, and Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki. LS explained that he joined Cloud9 after talking to C9 midlaner Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami and one of C9’s coaches Maxwell Alexander “Max” Waldo. Previously, LS was the one who recommended Max to C9 founder and CEO Jack Etienne.
Cloud9 with LS
LS admitted in the past few years, he has been rejecting head coaching jobs as he believed that “there was no better landing spot” than Cloud9. As a prominent personality in “League of Legends Champions Korea”, LS often criticized gameplays and performances at Worlds.
He claimed that the eastern squads at Worlds 2021 showed weak displays, especially when compared to the previous few years. Due to that fact, LS said that western teams like C9 reaching someone from the eastern hemisphere like him was something he did not believe to be possible.
“I feel like going into 2022, there’s a lot of expectations on this – a lot of people want to see me fail. They want to see the idea, the ideology of everything I have talked about on co-streams, on Twitter fail,” said LS.
“So I know there will be a lot of eyes on Cloud9, and I know there is going to be a lot of pressure on that. But I think that if we don’t win spring, summer, and if we don’t do well at Worlds – it’s a failure.”
Cloud9 has seen significant changes this offseason as they prepared for their Worlds 2021 Quarterfinals run. Recently, Cloud9 released superstar midlaner “Perkz” after just one year at the team. Cloud9 also surprised their fans by switching Fudge to the midlane. His original default position was then filled by Liiv SANDBOX top laner Park “Summit” Woo-tae.
Another shocking move made the team was moving support player Jonah “Isles” Rosario to the main roster. He will, however, have to fight for the starting job against Kim “Winsome” Dong-keon who is joining the team from Korea. On top of that, there is another competition for the starting job ib the bot lane role; between Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol.
Cloud9 surely has been moving their pieces a lot this year, and some of the starting roles were not even settled yet. Their squad for the 2022 season starting from January, however, is surely starting to materialize.
