Cloud9 Kia made short work of Sentinels. C9 swept their Week 7 best-of-three 2-0 on September 5, and the final scoreboards were never kind to SEN, who finished both games behind on kills, gold, towers and Barons.

The map tells most of the story. Across the two games C9 took 20 towers to SEN's five and claimed all three Barons in the series, playing from the blue side both times. Dragons were the one area where SEN kept pace, splitting them evenly in the opener, but that counted for little when the rest of the map belonged to their opponents.

Thanatos and Vulcan run the opener

The first game lasted 27:03 and ended 18-5 on kills. Thanatos was the standout: his Gnar went 6/0/4 and dealt 22,847 damage, the most of anyone in the game. Vulcan's Karma, meanwhile, finished 1/0/15 with 89% kill participation. Neither of them died once. For SEN the contrast in the top lane was stark, with Impact's K'Sante finishing 1/4/1 and dealing just 2,239 damage. HamBak was involved in all five of his team's kills, but there simply weren't many to be involved in.

SEN arguably put up more of a fight in the second game, which ran to 32:54 and closed at 21-13. Rahel's Yunara finished 6/3/5 with 24,441 damage, and DARKWINGS' Ahri was not far behind. But Loki outdid them both. His Yone went 8/1/8 and dealt 27,200 damage, the highest total on either side, while Tactical's Kalista led everyone in gold. Blaber's Wukong added a tidy 4/1/9, and C9 once again secured both Barons on offer.

Questions for Sentinels

For SEN, the series raises some uncomfortable questions. Impact died nine times across the two games, and the team's damage dealers could not turn their numbers in the second game into objectives. Losing the tower count 20-5 points to a problem that runs deeper than one bad draft or one bad lane.

C9, by contrast, got contributions from all over the map: a deathless top laner in one game, a mid laner carrying the other, and a support who kept setting up his teammates. Whether that spread of threats holds up against stronger opposition is the question to watch for C9 in the weeks ahead, while SEN will need answers quickly before their next outing.