Cloud9 are reportedly poised to sign Jake ‘jakee’ Anderson and Dylan ‘runi’ Cade to their Valorant roster to replace Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker and Anthony ‘vanity’ Malaspina.
Cloud9 are finalizing deals to sign two new players and complete their Valorant roster ahead of the VCT Americas League, according to Dot Esports. The North American organization is set to bring in runi, the former IGL of Soniqs, and jakee, a collegiate Valorant player who was last seen playing with the University of St. Thomas’ esports program.
runi has been in the North American Valorant scene since 2021 and competed on Zero MarksMen Black before signing with Soniqs in 2022. Both runi and jakee tried to qualify for the North American Challengers League through the open qualifiers.
INSANE FORSAKEN VANDAL ACE WATCH NOW pic.twitter.com/PRTrLu8Ylb
— jakee (@jakeeVAL) March 14, 2023
runi was one series win away from qualifying with Soniqs before the team lost to OREsports, while jakee competed on the free-agent roster NSIC, which bowed out of the tournament in the Round of 32.
The two players will finalize the Cloud9 roster after it parted ways with IGL vanity and Valorant star yay. The IGL role for the team will be filled by runi, while jakee will presumably take on Controller duties, his most played role.
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Cloud9 set to finalize Valorant roster after departures
Cloud9 let go of vanity and yay after the VCT LOCK//IN tournament to the shock of many. yay, the best Valorant player of 2022, had been signed just under five months earlier, while vanity had been a part of the roster since 2021.
Many have speculated that the moves are due to the financial issues that have hit the esports industry. Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne has rejected rumors that the organization is broke, but he admitted that he is “controlling costs” and planning for the long term.
Cloud9 is set to debut its two new players in the roster’s first match of the VCT Americas competition against Evil Geniuses on April 2.
Cloud9 Valorant roster:
- Nathan ‘leaf’ Orf
- Erick ‘Xeppaa’ Bach
- Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro
- Jake ‘jakee’ Anderson
- Dylan ‘runi’ Cade
- Mateja ‘qpert’ Mijovic (substitute)
- Hasan ‘BlackHeart’ Hammad (substitute)
Keep up to date with all the transfer activity in the Valorant scene with our mid-season live tracker.