To the surprise of no one, Cloud9’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster has undergone a major shakeup.
Following its failure to reach the closed qualifiers of the StarLadder Berlin Major Americas Minor Championship, the organization unveiled a heavily overhauled roster. The new lineup will debut at BLAST Pro Series: Los Angeles.
Joining Cloud9 star Timothy “Autimatic” Ta are former NRG Esports captain Damian “daps” Steele, Ghost Gaming’s Kenneth “Koosta” Suen, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo from the Bad News Bears, and former OpTic Gaming player Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas Colocho. Additionally, Cloud9 coach Soham “valens” Chowdhury is being transferred into an organization role with Cloud9. He will be replaced by former Ghost Gaming coach James “JamezIRL” Macaulay.
The news is not shocking. Though Cloud9 performed fairly well with a star-studded roster at the IEM Katowice Major in February, the organization heavily overhauled its roster after failing to reach the top eight.
The new lineup was full of talent but consistently struggled in tournaments, coming in last place at events like BLAST Pro Series: Miami 2019 and DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 and rarely getting much further than that. Though the organization still had a shot of reaching the StarLadder Berlin Major, it fell well short of even reaching the closed qualifiers there.
This called for a serious overhaul of the lineup, and Cloud9 has delivered on that with an interesting mix of players. That said, the future of two Cloud9 players remain in doubt.
Maikil “Golden” Kunda Selim was recently transferred to Ninjas in Pyjamas in preparation for the StarLadder Berlin Major. The player joins as the organization is set to faze out veteran captain Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund. Golden’s joining NiP had the look of a possible trial run to become the new NiP captain, but Cloud9’s addition of a new in-game leader in Daps suggests the move may be permanent.
Additionally, Cloud9’s Will “RUSH” Wierzba has been placed on the bench. He wished the team well on Twitter, but doesn’t appear to have given up his ambitions.
“My future is uncertain, but I will continue to grind the game and play these coming months by ear,” Rush said.
