Despite an $11 million contract, professional player Perkz fails to deliver

Perkz’s contract with Cloud9 made news at the beginning of the year for a very different reason–the $11 million contract was almost unheard of in North America. Perkz, widely considered the strongest player in his role in EU and NA following the retirement of mid legend Bjergsen, was expected to lead Cloud9 to victory nationally and internationally.

Perkz’s weaknesses showed early in the season. Cloud9, once the arguable best team in NA, floundered in the spring LCS split. The summer split was worse; Cloud9, with the rest of NA, lost to 100 Thieves, a team that had never been a serious threat until this year and had none of the star power of Perkz or Cloud9’s other members. Cloud9 barely managed to qualify for worlds in the summer split.

In worlds, Cloud9’s bid for champion crashed and burned in their best of five set against Gen G with Perkz’s help. He played below his pay grade, in one instance flashing into the enemy team alone only to die without accomplishing anything. Losing the series was a team factor, but it was in no way helped by de facto leader Perkz.