Cloud9 have announced a major overhaul to their CS:GO roster, replacing almost the entire line-up.
The organization revealed on July 2 that they have brought in four new players to the team, confirming a previous report by Dexerto’s Jarek ‘DeKay’ Lewis.
Joining the roster are NRG in-game leader Damian ‘Daps’ Steele, former Ghost Gaming player Kenneth ‘Koosta’ Suen, Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo, and Óscar ‘mixwell’ Cañellas Colocho, best known for his time on OpTic Gaming. Of the previous Cloud9 squad, only Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta remains on the active line-up.
The new players replace William ‘Rush’ Wierzba, who will be moved to the bench, Maikil ‘Golden’ Selim Rahim, who is currently on loan to Ninjas in Pyjamas and will play at the StarLadder Berlin Major with them, Daniel ‘vice’ Kim and Rene ‘Cajunb’ Borg, who will be departing the organization entirely.
The new line-up is set to make their debut at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles, taking place on July 13-14, where they will face several of the strongest teams currently competing in North America in Team Liquid, NRG, MiBR, and Renegades, with FaZe Clan rounding out the event’s line-up.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
The move comes after a gradual decline in Cloud9’s results, with the final nail in the coffin coming as they crashed out of the online qualifier for the Americas Minor with consecutive losses to New Identity and The Quest.
The upsets cost Cloud9 any chance of appearing at the StarLadder Berlin Major, despite the fact that the organization would have already held a spot if they’d kept at least three of the players that competed for them at the previous Major, IEM Katowice.
In addition to the player changes, Cloud9 also announced that former coach Soham ‘valens’ Chowdhury will be moving to a Data Scientist role and supporting new head coach James ‘JamezIRL’ Macauley, who coached Ghost Gaming prior to the team being disbanded.
Cloud9’s new roster:
- Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta
- Damian ‘daps’ Steele
- Kenneth ‘Koosta’ Suen
- Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo
- Óscar ‘mixwell’ Cañellas Colocho