Cloud9 Sign LS As League of Legends Head Coach

Cloud9 officially signed Nick “LS” De Cesare as head coach of its League of Legends team on Wednesday, December 1.

The news surfaced only a day after the organization revealed the departure of its entire coaching personnel ahead of the 2022 season.

LS is a well-known figure in the League of Legends esports community and a prominent streamer. His online personality has mostly revolved around co-streaming professional LoL leagues, namely the LoL European Championship (LEC), LoL Championship Series (LCS), and the LoL Champions Korea (LCK).

While LS is a popular streamer, he is also recognized as one of the most controversial figures in the scene. That is mainly due to his unique view of the game, the meta, and drafting.

Even though LS has spent his recent years as a Twitch streamer, he has previous coaching experience. The 28-year-old has coached seven teams over his career, including SUPA HOT CREW, MeetYourMakers, Roar, Gravity, Tempo Storm, Icheon, and bbq Olivers.

His most notable coaching stint came with bbq Olivers, who he led to the semi-finals of CK 2019 Spring Playoffs.

LS has been since courted by many top-tier League of Legends teams, most notably by T1. However, he decided against re-entering the pro play and instead focused on streaming and content creation.

Even though LS decided against joining an LoL esports team in the past, he changed his mind this offseason.

As revealed by LS, he saw the opportunity to join Cloud9 as a head coach as his best chance to return to pro play. Secondly, he believes that Cloud9 have a legitimate chance to compete for the World Championship title.

LS, who has been closely following the Asian leagues, believes the level of play in Asia has regressed enough for NA and European teams to stand a chance at the international events.

“If there was ever going to be a chance to return to pro play in some facet, coaching, this probably would have just been it,” said LS.

“And, I thought watching Worlds this past year that LPL and LCK teams regressed in terms of gameplay. And I never felt that before in previous years.”

Beyond that, it’s LS’ relationship with Cloud9 members that helped him make the decision. He is a close friend with both Cloud9’s new mid laner Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami and assistant coach Maxwell Alexander “Max” Waldo.

As stated by LS, he was also actively involved in Cloud9’s rebuilding process for the 2022 season. And with the way C9’s offseason ended, LS believes the team has real potential to achieve great things next season.

As someone who is known for criticizing teams’ playstyle and drafts, there’s a lot of pressure on LS to succeed. Having been very vocal about what he believes is the optimal style of play, LS is now put in a spot where he has to prove he has the winning formula.

“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 Twiter 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.”

As revealed by LS, his plan is to work closely with the Cloud9 Academy LoL esports team to help both the main and secondary roster improve. And while it remains to be seen how his plan will work out, C9 has the talent to achieve greatness.

LS will make his debut as Cloud9 coach in the LCS Lock-In tournament, slated to kick off on January 14.