Four scenarios that could save Cloud9 from final collapse – from the obvious to the craziest

Another super cast Cloud9 failed. After the departure of Denis electroNic Sharipov to Virtus.pro and the decision of Ilya Perfecto Zalutsky and Abai HObbit Khasenov to sit on the bench, this can be stated with complete confidence. The team could not bear the weight of its own ambitions, and the management did not keep track of the disagreements that arose within the team. As a result, the team’s best result was 3-4 places at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2023 and Thunderpick World Championship 2023.

Now Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailov and Sergei Ax1Le Rykhtorov face a difficult task – to build a team practically from scratch that could represent the club on the shooting range-1 stage. In this Cybersport.ru article we will help Russian cybersportsmen and tell them four ways to form a new team. Perhaps they will help players achieve success.

Play for the future – focus on beginners

Perhaps this will be the most logical option on the list. In the last year or two, we have seen a trend towards the success of academic rosters and teams that reach the top without the help of veterans of the professional scene. The Eastern European market is teeming with “young and promising” people who are trying with all their might to appear on the radars of large organizations.

Now we have many teams that are not ready to boast of consistent good results – Amkal Esports, Nemiga Gaming and PARIVISION. Each of these rosters has players who have potential, but are not ready to carry the club alone. So, Kaisar ICY Faiznurov, Timur FL4MUS Marev or Artem ArtFr0st Kharitonov could fit in well with Cloud9. The main disadvantage is that you will have to spend money on them, because they are burdened with contractual obligations. You can also look towards Adam froz1k Nagorny and Nikita robo– Dushin, whom I wrote about in an article about young talents (after all, one player from that list has already been signed by BetBoom Team), and continue performing with Daniil alpha Demin.

The main disadvantage of this path is the time that will have to be spent to achieve results. Fans demand bread and circuses, and the decision to add newcomers to the roster is a path to long-term success that will take at least six months to a year. But by signing young talent, we will create optimal conditions for the work of Groove, which has nurtured the very Gambit players who achieved success in the early stages of their careers.

Continue to hype – take s1mple and interz

But since Cloud9 likes to make noise with big announcements, the decision to sign newcomers may seem too ordinary. After all, the organization earns money not only thanks to first places in tournaments – the names that represent the club on stage play a big role. You can’t cook porridge with no names and you can’t sign contracts with new sponsors. In this case, good old Alexander s1mple Kostylev, who went into inactivity six months ago, and Timofey interz Yakushin, whose comeback will clearly shake up the media field, come to our aid.

Previously, s1mple said that he “would never move to Cloud9 when there are four Russian players playing there,” but now there are only two e-sportsmen from Russia on the team. Yes, Kostylev has not been in his prime form for a long time, but he is able to make the C9 lineup even more media-rich with just his name. And in this case, the club does not have to worry about views – attention will be focused on the team at absolutely all tournaments.

Of course, in comparison with s1mple, interz’s comeback does not sound so bright (in terms of resonance, only the transfer of Ilya m0NESY Osipov can compete with the s1mple transfer). However, it seems that the player deserves another chance to prove himself. Interz once shared first place with Perfecto in the list of the best supports. And something tells me that Yakushin clearly could not forget how to play during the six months he spent in TSM.

Follow in the footsteps of NAVI and assemble an English-speaking roster

The riskiest scenario is to resort to the help of Western European players… I wanted to write until I remembered NAVI’s recent success at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024. Does Ax1Le speak English poorly? The linguistic skills of Valery b1t Vakhovsky were also the subject of ridicule from the community. Will the captain call in a language other than his native language? This didn’t stop Alexi Aleksib Virolainen…

The main difference in the situations of Cloud9 and NAVI is the timing in which the clubs decided to reshuffle. The Ukrainian team started doing this right after the major, when reshuffles were happening everywhere. Now almost a month has passed since the main tournament from Valve, and all the players from tier-1 who would like to change teams either did so or re-signed the contract and postponed such a decision until later. However, if the team is still looking towards more accessible English-speaking players, the management should pay attention to Heinrich sl3nd Hevesi, Linus nilo Bergman and Adam adamS Marian – young players with good statistics from tier-2 teams. The main thing is that the esports players themselves are ready to change the language of communication.

Spend big and buy out deko (and other Aurora players)

Aurora is one of the main teams on the tier-2 scene, which has an illusory chance to break into the top. The lineup includes a good riffler Evgeniy r3salt Frolov, former teammate Boombl4 Denis deko Zhukov, who shows good statistics with AWP, and stable Viktor Lack1 Boldyrev. The team wins qualifications and wins minor championships with enviable consistency (Aurora has already earned more prize money for 2024 than C9).

However, to buy out the trio of Aurora players, you will have to spend fabulous money. The club will probably ask for less for the esports players than Cloud9 once paid NAVI for the Perfecto and electroNic duo (about $2 million, according to insider Alexey OverDrive Biryukov), but the organization will clearly not give up the players without a fight.

The question is whether the players themselves want the transfer. On the one hand, the team’s results went up with the arrival of r3salt and the roster slowly began its path to the top 20. On the other hand, no matter how much we hated Cloud9, it was consistently in the top 10 teams according to HLTV.org. This means that she was provided with invites to all the top tournaments, and for this she did not even have to spend effort on the qualifiers. Top 8 at a major is bad, but it still means you were in Valve’s main event. Boombl4’s “bad” results are a dream for Aurora players so far. Therefore, such a transfer is quite likely.

***

So far, the future of Cloud9 is as vague as possible. I, as a fan of academic rosters, would resort to the decision to buy out young players, however, on the other hand, I, like many C9 fans, want to quickly see the triumph of the future roster. The main thing now is to admit the mistakes of the past and find a good sniper. And then, you see, the championship at the major will be just around the corner.