Call it a Cinderella story, a tale of redemption, a hero’s journey: no label can fully describe the triumphant return of Hai Lam to the Cloud9 roster mid-way through the 2015 Summer split, which culminated in an against-all-odds ascension through the Regional tournament to qualify for the 2015 World Championships.
After Hai’s first few games back, very few people gave Cloud9 much chance of avoiding the Relegation Tournament, let alone qualifying for Worlds. But as the regular season wound to a close, if you knew where to look, there were signs that this could be coming, hints of a team ready to make its triumphant return. A handful of different statistics revealed Cloud9 as a potential top-3 North American team over the last four weeks of the regular season.
We’re going to take a two-part look at Hai’s effects on Cloud9 this split.
- The first part of the article tells the story of how Hai helped Cloud9 improve enough to squeak into Regionals, run the gauntlet, and qualify for Worlds.
- The second part is a statistical appendix that digs into three ways Cloud9 played differently after Hai’s return.
Read both parts for the full perspective, or feel free to scroll down to the section that interests you most!