Cloud9 are now a strong CS2 team

After the acquisition of electroNic and Perfecto from Natus Vincere, Cloud9 has become a North American Russian team led by a player from Kazakhstan. HObbit’s role as the squad’s IGL is probably much easier nowadays than it was last year, because the roster is much stronger and easier to manage.

At their most recent Counter-Strike event, BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown, Cloud9 finished 1^st and secured a spot in the BLAST Premier: Fall Final. The Grand Final against BIG was challenging, but everyone on the team played really well. In particular, Ax1Le had an exceptional performance, ending the match with a record of 51-36.

Back-to-back #BLASTPremier Showdown Champions 🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/lQJZhDfZYA

— Cloud9 CS (@C9CSGO) October 8, 2023

C9’s chances of becoming a great team again

Cloud9 are once again a top 10 Counter-Strike team. Earlier this year, they were ranked 5^th. Then they dropped a lot of positions when the roster changed. But now they’re quickly climbing the ranks again. The only question is: how high can they reach this year?

The next tournament for the team will be IEM Sydney. This event brings together 16 of the world’s strongest competitors. If Cloud9 can succeed at this level, against the likes of Fnatic, ENCE, G2, and Complexity, then they will be regarded as a formidable team again.

It’s been a long time since the days when C9 was winning S-tier tournaments, including Majors. Something still seems to be missing before they can do that again, but some of the pieces are working well right now, at least individually.

Both Ax1Le and electroNic are in great shape. And sh1ro, who was the 3^rd best player in CS:GO last year, is also doing his part pretty well. With slightly better cohesion, this team could end up becoming a contender in S-tier tournaments until the end of the year.

The reason why IEM Sydney will be an important test is that this tournament is the first Counter-Strike 2 event and will show us the extent to which C9 have mastered the new edition of CS, relative to the other participants.

It’s still a bit hard to regard C9 as being capable of finishing an event like this in the top four, but the truth is that a mere playoffs qualification would be more than enough to prove to the fans that they can count on the new roster to deliver impressive results.

Header: Cloud9