Cloud9 wins first Vainglory Unified Western Live Championships

Zorine Te
Cloud9's winning Vainglory team. (Super Evil Megacorp)
Cloud9’s winning Vainglory team. (Super Evil Megacorp)

Cloud9’s Vainglory team has won first place at the Vainglory Unified Western Live Championships, which took place this weekend. The event featured the top North American and European teams and was hosted at the O2 Arena in London.

Cloud9 picks up $30,000 for their win over Gankstars, going 3-0 in the finals.

The Vainglory Spring Championships featured the six best team from NA and EU, with the first day of the competition focused on matches within each region’s teams. The second day pit the two regions each other, ending with G2 being the only European team to make it to the finals.

Several other established esports organizations fielded teams at the tournament, including Team SoloMid and Fnatic.

With the win, Cloud9 have secured a spot at the World Championships that will be hosted in December this year.

“The finals against Gankstars was intense as we were playing against our former teammates,” said Gabe “gabevizzle” Villarin of Cloud9. “We knew there was a good chance we were going to play as a top team and although we struggled at some points during the semifinals against TSM we stayed together to pull out a win during the finals. We’re already looking forward to the Summer Championships and competing with everyone again.”

In January, Super Evil Megacorp announced the Vainglory Team Franchise Program, which launched this year. Through it, teams have the option to establish a home city, enabling them to connect with local fan communities and players. Franchisees are not be given an advantage in competition, as they will still need to compete to prove themselves. The program started in the spring season of 2017.