Cloud9
Jonathan Tran Soham "valens" Chowdhury
: 2014-08-01Cloud9 is a North American esports organisation currently fielding teams in Hearthstone, League of Legends, Smite, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Wii U, Heroes of the Storm, CS:GO, Overwatch, Rainbow Six, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite, and Rocket League.
Overview[edit]
Originally acquired from compLexity Gaming, Cloud9's core Counter-Strike squad formerly consisted of most of the players originally of the compLexity team, which included shroud, SEMPHIS, Hiko, n0thing, and sgares. Etienne, the General Manager of C9, stated that he caught glimpse of the CS:GO scene at EMS One: Katowice 2014 and knew he wanted to hold a CS:GO team after seeing that event and eventually took up the opportunity to sign the former compLexity players, who placed in the 5-8 slot at the major. Throughout the years, many of the teammates that were from the original compLexity lineup left, leaving only shroud and n0thing as the last two members of the original lineup. This was until the 15th of August, 2017, when both shroud and n0thing were benched from the active roster, the two longest serving members of the squad. This leaves nobody from the original compLexity roster in the active lineup. Despite this, the team's main influences can still be linked back to the play style of the original compLexity roster.
History[edit]
ESL One: Cologne 2014[edit]
At ESL One: Cologne 2014, Cloud9 were placed in Group D, alongside Team Dignitas, Titan, and Australian fan favorites, Vox Eminor. Cloud9's opening match of the tournament was against the French side Titan on Dust II. The halftime score looked like there was no way back for Cloud9, after being 4:11 down. Amazingly, the Americans matched the same score as Titan and took the team to overtime. In overtime, Cloud9 clinched victory, by winning the second overtime with a final scoreline of 22-18. The group winners match was against Team Dignitas on Mirage. This game is now famous for Hiko's insane play during Cloud9's comeback on the CT side against the Danes, which caused caster Anders Blume to say his now famous catch phrase "Hiko are you kidding me?". With a final score of 16-14, the team had won their group for the second time at a Major, after having done so at DreamHack Winter 2013 the previous year. In the quarter-finals, there opponents were Swedish team Ninjas in Pyjamas. They would face off on a gripping three map series, on Nuke, Dust II and Cobblestone. Cloud9 won the first map on Nuke 16-8, in what was considered to be an upset score by many fans, as NiP was known at the time for their dominance on the map. Now in the second game, strong performances from Xizt and shroud kept the game neck and neck, but in the end the Ninjas prevailed, and won the map 16-14. Momentum now on their side, NiP ultimately powered through to winning the series, after another close match, with again a final score of 14-16. Ninjas in Pyjamas went on to win the Major against Fnatic in the grand finals.
DreamHack Winter 2014[edit]
After Cologne, Cloud9's results started to decline. At the next Major, DreamHack Winter 2014, the team were placed in Group A, alongside opponents Fnatic, HellRaisers, and Bravado Gaming. Initially, Cloud9 were touted to emerge victorious from the group but a shock performance from CIS-based team HellRaisers prevented this, defeating Cloud9 on Inferno 16-5 and Swedish favourites Fnatic 16-14 on Mirage. Now 0-1, Cloud9 played South African newcomers Bravado Gaming on Cache. Cloud9 looked strong and closed out the match 16-1. In the elimination match, the Americans once again faced Fnatic, and finally met their demise after a final score of 5-16 on Dust II.
After the Major and other shaky results, for example the ESEA Season 17 Finals where the team placed 5th-6th, it was clear some roster changes were needed. As a result, on December 14th, ShahZaM was acquired from Denial eSports to replace Hiko.
Summer of 2015[edit]
In April 2015, the team released SEMPHIS and ShahZaM and signed Skadoodle from iBUYPOWER and also signed fREAKAZOiD. In the summer of 2015, Cloud9 hit a run of good form, with wins over EnVyUs in multiple BO3 upsets and other strong results throughout the summer, which led them to second place finishes at the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 Finals, ESWC 2015 and the FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals. Later that year in November, seang@res stepped down from the lineup following internal issues with the team; he would later join Torqued which went on to become the first roster of Rick Fox's Echo Fox.
Beginning of 2016[edit]
In January, the team controversially picked up Stewie2K. During this time n0thing would be the in-game leader for the team. The team also picked up Irukandji to coach and prepare the team for the upcoming Major, MLG Columbus 2016; however, due to his prior commitments with dentistry school Irukandji was unable to attend the Major itself. The team scrapped through the qualifier with a loss to Gambit and two narrow victories over Dignitas and Renegades. During the Major, the team did quite poorly with crushing defeats of 9-16 and 3-16 to Natus Vincere and G2 Esports respectively. Shortly after the Major fREAKAZOiD stepped down from the active roster and later joined Echo Fox after some inactivity. Now with an open slot on the roster, Cloud9 began trialing potential new 5th players. One of the more notable players that were trialed during this period was adreN of Team Liquid. Eventually, the new in-game leader of Cloud9 was found, Slemmy from Without a Roof.
autimatic Transfer and Championship Win[edit]
After the first season of ELEAGUE, Irukandji left as the team's coach. Only a couple weeks after, Slemmy asked to be removed from the active roster. Cloud9 later acquired autimatic and valens from TSM as their replacements. valens became more of a psychologist for the team and helped solve some internal problems the team were having and helped boost the confidence of the team. These acquisitions payed off, as the team's performance unexpectedly and immediately took an upward turn, with a 3rd-4th finish at StarLadder's StarSeries Season 2 finals, second at Dreamhack Bucharest and another second-place finish at Northern Arena Toronto. As well as this, Cloud9 had an impressive near flawless run in the online season of ESL Pro League, only dropping one map to former Cloud9 leader seangares' Echo Fox. Despite their great showing in the online portion, Cloud9 were not favoured to do well at the offline finals, with opponents such as dignitas, NiP, FaZe and SK in their group. Despite this, Cloud9 made it past the group stage, with a result of 4-1, losing only to SK. In the playoffs, Cloud9 blitzed through OpTic in the quarter finals, and later defeating mousesports in the semi-finals, without dropping a map to either opponent. In the grand finals, Cloud9 met SK once again, the only team who Cloud9 had lost to in the tournament. The first map ended in overtime after a 2-13 comeback by SK on Overpass. Despite this setback, Cloud9 won both the second and third maps easily, surprising many with their amazing performance.
Cloud9's win marked the first win at an international premier tournament by a North American team in 10 years, the last of which being done by compLexity at CPL Summer in 2006.
Summer of 2017[edit]
Following the win at ESL Pro League Season 4, the team struggled with leadership as both autimatic and Stewie2k would switch the IGL role constantly. Eventually, the role was given to Stewie2k to allow autimatic to focus more on his fragging in the game. During this time of IGL switching the team struggled to get past many group stages of tournaments, but once Stewie2k was permanently set as the IGL the team were able to break their curse by achieving a 3rd-4th finish at the ECS Season 3 Finals, winning over Fnatic 16-8 and getting an upset victory at 19-15 over Astralis to make the playoffs, before losing to FaZe Clan in the semi-finals. The week after, they finished with a 3-1 record at the PGL Krakow Major Qualifier, earning their first major spot since MLG Columbus 2016. Their second place finish at ESL One: Cologne 2017 put Cloud9 in the spotlight, projecting them as one of the best teams going into the Major.
End of an Era[edit]
Despite showing promise at the ECS Season 3 Finals by reaching the semi-finals and placing 2nd at ESL One: Cologne 2017, the team placed 9th-11th at PGL Major Kraków 2017, marking yet another Major group stage exit. Following the poor result, Cloud9 benched its two longest serving players, n0thing and shroud, and replaced them with former OpTic Gaming duo, RUSH and tarik. After these changes, tarik begins to in-game lead, after showing motivation towards picking up the role. [1]
A Major Success Story[edit]
After months of inconsistency, the team qualified for the ELEAGUE Boston Major in the New Challengers Stage, where they swept through the Swiss stage 3-0. The New Legends Stage would not go as smoothly with the team immediately going down 0-2. On a limb, Cloud9 sent Virtus Pro, Astralis, and Vega Squadron packing, pulling off a reverse sweep to continue on to the New Champions Stage with a 3-2 record. In Quarter-Finals, Cloud9 faced off against G2 and easily disposed of the team in in a 2-0 fashion. The Americans met their Brazillian rivals SK Gaming in the Semi-Finals, with the series stretching a full three maps, but ultimately landing easily in Cloud9's favor. Making it to the Grand Finals after an epic run, the Americans came up against FaZe Clan, a team considered by many at the time to be the best in the world. A hard fought map on Mirage finished 14-16 in favor of FaZe, showing the Americans would not go down easily without a fight. The next map Overpass was again a brutally fought map before Cloud9 eventually took it 16-10. The final map to determine the Major Champion was Inferno. A monster performance from GuardiaN lead to FaZe gaining match point at 15-11, seemingly guaranteeing a victory for the Europeans. However, heroic plays from both tarik and Stewie2K forced the final map into overtime in the final map. In overtime, Cloud9 swept through the first three rounds easily, but were immediately countered with three immediate round losses in the subsequent half, forcing the final map into double overtime. In double overtime, the team eventually pulled through, defeating FaZe 22-19 and becoming the first North American team to win a Major.[2]
Post-Major Struggles[edit]
This magical run would not last for long though, as the team stumbled, only making it to the Grand Finals of cs_summit 2. The limited success lead to Jacky "Stewie2K" Yip departing the team to join SK Gaming. Cloud9 called upon Complexity In-Game Leader FNS to lead the team and fill the vacancy left by Stewie2K's departure, but was later transfer listed shortly after due to differences between his playing style and the rest of the team. Current longest standing member Skadoodle announced he would be taking a break, leaving yet another hole from the most recent major champions to fill, but later decided to stay after improved performance. Amidst continued poor performance, Tarik left the team to follow Stewie2k to SK Gaming. After being benched by Fnatic, Golden joined Mousesports loanee Styko as stand-ins for several events in the summer competitions of 2018. Golden would later sign as a full-time member of the team, and Styko would be sent back to Mousesports after Flusha signed with the team. Skadoodle would officially retire from playing Competitive CS:GO shortly afterwards, however. After this, Cloud9 would fill Skadoodle's spot with different stand-in players including refrezh, the young rifler, who is now on the OpTic Gaming roster. Another name is Zellsis. Originally coming from Swole Patrol, Zellsis is now listed as Coach for IEM Katowice 2019.
Timeline[edit]
Player Roster[edit]
Active[edit]
| Active Squad | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Join Date | |||
|
|
autimatic | Timothy Ta | 2016-08-17 [16] | ||
|
|
RUSH | Will Wierzba | 2017-08-15 [17] | ||
|
flusha | Robin Rönnquist | 2018-09-25 [32] | ||
|
kioShiMa | Fabien Fiey | 2018-11-17 [34] | ||
|
|
Zellsis (Trial) | Jordan Montemurro | 2018-12-29 [35] | ||
|
|
valens (Coach) | Soham Chowdhury | 2017-02-03 | ||
Inactive[edit]
| Inactive Players | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Join Date | Inactive Date | ||
|
|
Golden 
|
Maikil Selim | 2018-08-08 [30] | 2018-11-29 [35] | |
|
|
Skadoodle | Tyler Latham | 2015-04-29 [8] [23] | 2018-10-16 [33] | |
Former[edit]
| Former Players | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Join Date |
Inactive Date | Leave Date | New Team | |
|
STYKO (Loan)  |
Martin Styk | 2018-08-09 [27] [31] | 2018-09-25 [32] | mousesports (Inactive)
| |
|
FNS | Pujan Mehta | 2018-04-02 [22] | 2018-05-26 [26] | 2018-07-25 [29] |  eUnited
|
|
|
tarik | Tarik Celik | 2017-08-15 [17] | 2018-07-12 [28] |  MIBR
| |
|
|
n0thing | Jordan Gilbert | 2014-08-01 [3] | 2017-08-15 [17] | 2018-05-07 [17][25] |  Old Guys Club
|
|
|
Stewie2K | Jacky Yip | 2016-01-11 [10] | 2018-03-30 [20][21] |  SK Gaming
| |
|
|
shroud | Michael Grzesiek | 2014-08-01 [3] | 2017-08-15 [17] | 2017-08-15[18] |  Cloud9 (Streamer)
|
|
|
Slemmy | Alec White | 2016-04-23 [14] | 2016-12-28 [16] |  Selfless Gaming
| |
|
|
Irukandji (Coach) | Andrew Timmerman | 2016-03-24 [11] | 2016-07-26 [15] | Retired
| |
|
|
fREAKAZOiD | Ryan Abadir | 2015-04-29 [8] | 2016-05-19 [36] |  Echo Fox
| |
|
|
sgares | Sean Gares | 2014-08-01 [3] | 2015-11-24 [9] |  Torqued
| |
|
|
SEMPHIS | Kory Friesen | 2014-08-01 [3] | 2015-04-24 [7] |  Nihilum Gaming
| |
|
|
ShahZaM | Shahzeb Khan | 2014-12-14 [6] | 2015-04-24 [7] |  Tempo Storm
| |
|
|
Hiko | Spencer Martin | 2014-08-01 [3] | 2014-12-14 [6] |  GX
| |
Organization[edit]
Active[edit]
| Organization | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Position | Join Date | |||
|
|
Jack | Jack Etienne | General Manager/Owner | |||
|
|
calle | Calle Danielsson | Video Producer | |||
|
Portilho | Mateus Portilho | Social Media Manager | 2017-10-09 [37] | ||
|
|
Jonathan Tran | Team Manager | ||||
|
|
Gaylen | Gaylen Malone | General Manager | |||
Former[edit]
| Former Organization | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Position | Join Date | Leave Date | New Organization | |
|
|
David | David Denis | Psychology Trainer | 2016-??-?? | 2019-01-12 [38] | |
|
|
Danan | Danan Flander | General Manager | 201?-??-?? | 2018-10-17 [39] | |
|
|
shroud | Michael Grzesiek | Streamer (backup player) | 2017-08-15 [17] [18] | 2018-04-18 [24] | Retired
|
|
|
JamezIRL | James Macaulay | Analyst | 2015-09-08 | 2017-??-?? |  Adaptation
|
|
|
swag | Braxton Pierce | Streamer | 2015-04-29 [8] | 2017-??-?? [40] |  GX
|
|
|
stunna | Tres Saranthus | Manager | 2014-08-01 [3] | 2016-07-26 [41] | GX
|
Interviews[edit]
- 2015-05-12 |
Stunna: ”You can’t force players to play roles they don’t want to, it’s a ticking time bomb” by Aftonbladet (trans. )
- 2018-03-26 | Cloud9 and London Spitfire's Jack Etienne on Building World Champions by Amanda Stevens of Unikrn
Achievements[edit]
| Date | Placement | Tier | Tournament | Results | Prize | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-01-28 | 1st | Premier |
|
ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 | 2 : 1 | 
|
$500,000 |
| 2017-11-12 | 1st | Major |
|
iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 | 2 : 0 | 
|
$50,000 |
| 2017-10-22 | 1st | Major |
|
DreamHack Open Denver 2017 | 2 : 0 | 
|
$50,000 |
| 2017-10-12 | 3rd - 4th | Premier |
|
ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017 | 1 : 2 | 
|
$70,000 |
| 2017-07-09 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ESL One: Cologne 2017 | 0 : 3 |
|
$40,000 |
| 2017-06-25 | 3rd - 4th | Premier |
|
Esports Championship Series Season 3 - Finals | 0 : 2 |
|
$65,000 |
| 2017-06-11 | 1st | Major |
|
Americas Minor Championship - Kraków 2017 | 2 : 1 | 
|
$30,000 |
| 2016-10-30 | 1st | Premier |
|
ESL Pro League Season 4 - Finals | 2 : 1 |
|
$200,000 |
| 2015-11-15 | 1st | Premier |
|
iBUYPOWER Cup | 2 : 1 | 
|
$65,000 |
| 2015-07-05 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 - Finals | 1 : 3 | 
|
$60,000 |
| About achievementsComplete Results in any Tournament | |||||||
Trivia[edit]
- Cloud9 are the first team to win all but one map in the ESL Pro League, in the fourth season, with a 25-1 record. Their only map loss was to former in-game leader seangares' Echo Fox.
- Following on from their outstanding result in EPL Season 4, they were also able to win the offline finals 2-1 over home favourites; SK Gaming. This win also marked the first premier international event won by a North American team in ten years.
- Cloud9 are the first North American team to win a CS:GO Major Championship, having done so at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018.
Gallery[edit]
Cloud9 at DreamHack Stockholm 2015
From left to right: sgares, fREAKAZOiD, n0thing, shroud, Skadoodle
Cloud9 at DreamHack Valencia 2015
From left to right: sgares, shroud, n0thing, fREAKAZOiD, Skadoodle
Cloud9 at DH Cluj-Napoca 2015
From left to right: Skadoodle, n0thing, fREAKAZOiD, shroud, sgares
Highlight videos[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Professeur (2017-08-30). "Autimatic: tarik seemed very motivated". HLTV.
- ↑ List of CS:GO Major Championships
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Jack Etienne (2014-08-01). "Cloud9 HyperX Reloads With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive". Cloud9.
- ↑ Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2014-08-01). "Official: Cloud9 sign coL". HLTV.org.
- ↑ Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen (2014-11-26). "n0thing: "sgares is calling again"". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Michal "stich" Malachowski (2014-12-14). "Cloud9 adds ShahZam; Hiko out". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2015-04-24). "Cloud9 release ShahZaM, SEMPHIS". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2015-04-29). "Cloud9 sign Skadoodle, fREAKAZOiD". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Tres "stunna" Saranthus (2015-11-24). "Sean Gares Steps Down from CS:GO Starting Lineup". Cloud9.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Tres "stunna" Saranthus (2016-01-11). "Cloud9 CS:GO Adds Stewie2k!". cloud9.gg/.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Milan "Striker" Švejda (2016-03-24). "C9: Not satisfied with Summer 2015". HLTV.org.
- ↑ Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert (2016-05-15). "C9 n0thing: "We still don't know why fREAKAZOiD left"". ESEA.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Tres "stunna" Saranthus (2016-04-12). "fREAKAZOiD Departs Starting CS:GO Roster". Cloud9.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Tres "stunna" Saranthus (2016-04-23). "Cloud9 CS:GO Welcomes Alec "Slemmy" White!". Cloud9.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Cloud9 ESEA Roster History". ESEA. 2016-07-26.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Danan Flander (2016-08-17). "Slemmy Steps Down; autimatic to Cloud9 CS:GO". Cloud9.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 John Nomis (2017-08-15). "Cloud9 Acquires RUSH, tarik as ESL One: NY Qualifiers Begin". Cloud9.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Michael "shroud" Grzesiek (2017-08-15). https://clips.twitch.tv/MuddyAmericanHabaneroPeteZarollTie.
- ↑ Milan "Striker" Švejda (2018-03-30). "Skadoodle announces inactivity". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2018-03-30). "Cloud9 confirm Stewie2K exit". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2018-03-30). "Stewie2K links up with SK squad". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 "We would like to welcome our newest #C9CSGO memeber, @FNS !". Cloud9. 2018-04-02.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham (2018-04-11). "Oh btw skadaddy is BACK BABY".
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Michael "shroud" Grzesiek (2018-04-18). "Here is to new beginnings.".
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Nathan Fusco (2018-05-07). "n0thing's Contract With Cloud9 Has Ended". DBLTap.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 John Nomis (2018-05-26). "Cloud9 announces FNS to inactive CSGO roster". Cloud9.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2018-07-01). "STYKO to fill in for Cloud9 at ESL One Cologne". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 John Nomis (2018-07-12). "Cloud9 Bids Farewell to tarik". Cloud9.
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Pujan "FNS" Mehta (2018-07-25). "As of today, I'm a free agent.".
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 John Nomis (2018-08-08). "Cloud9 Signs GOLDEN to CSGO Roster". Cloud9.
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 John Nomis (2018-08-09). "Cloud9 Extends STYKO Through September". Cloud9.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 John Nomis (2018-09-25). "Cloud9 CS:GO Sign flusha, Release STYKO". Cloud9.
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 John Nomis (2018-10-16). "Skadoodle Stepping Back From Competitive CS:GO". Cloud9.
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 John Nomis (2018-11-17). "Cloud9 CS:GO Welcomes kioShiMa". Cloud9.
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 John Nomis (2018-11-29). "Cloud9 Welcome Zellsis For CS:GO Trial". Cloud9.
- ↑ Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir (2016-05-19). "Thanks to Cloud9 for the opportunity and memories.".
- ↑ Mateus "Portilho" Portilho (2017-10-09). "Glad to announce I'm now part of the @Cloud9 Family! ߷".
- ↑ David Denis (2019-01-12). "@Cloud9 and myself are parting ways.".
- ↑ Danan Flander (2018-10-17). "Had to keep this under wraps for a while now, but it's official. Super excited to make awesome things happen with the Warriors; 2019 is going to be insane.".
- ↑ swag (2017-07-12). "Brax's Contract with C9".
- ↑ Danan "Danan" Flander (2016-07-26). "stunna Departs from Cloud9". Cloud9.
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