Cloud9 has benched starters mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi and support Andy "Smoothie" Ta for the start of the North American League of Legends Championship Series summer split, the team announced Wednesday. Three of its Academy players -- mid laner Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer, AD carry Yuri "KEITH" Jew and support Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam -- will start against Clutch Gaming and OpTic Gaming on Saturday and Sunday, and Jensen, Sneaky and Smoothie will start for Cloud9 Academy in the meantime. Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne and head coach Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu cited impressive scrimmage performances and motivation from its Academy players and a lack of those traits from its former starting players as reasons for the switch. Saturday and Sunday's matches will break the streak for the longest amount of started games by a single player on the same team in League of Legends history; Sneaky has competed in 289 consecutive League Championship Series games on the Cloud9 roster since it joined the league in May 2013.
