C9’s time in Counter-Strike might be over — again.
Cloud9's recent stint in CS2 appears over as the final player from the active roster, Timofey "interz" Yakushin, bid farewell on Jan. 13.
Those hoping C9 remains in Counter-Strike can only speculate to the organization's future in the esport. There has been no news about the org's involvement in CS2, and with the season kicking off this week, C9 remains absent from the calendar entirely.
Interz gone as C9's presence in Counter-Strike shrinks further
With Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko off to fill the shoes of NiKo at G2, Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov and Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov at BetBoom, and prodigy Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov headed to Virtus.pro, C9's CS2 roster is in shambles.
Just coach Konstantin "groove" Pikiner and benched Russian player Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy remain, and it's not clear at this stage whether they'll stay on any longer. The team has not registered for the first BLAST Bounty or any other event, and with the loss of the bulk of the roster, their Valve Regional Standings (VRS) is wiped clean.
As a result, unless the org signs a VRS-ranked core, a future C9 squad will need to work their way up through open qualifiers and lower-tiered events if they want to make it to the likes of a major again.
It was a flat end to a forgetful year for C9 in CS2. The roster showed signs of life throughout the early 2024 months including a top eight finish at the PGL Copenhagen Major. However, expectations were sky-high for the boys in sky blue, and they failed to reach the lofty ceiling set for them.
C9 originally had no problems qualifying for the big events in 2023 and 2024. But, by the end of the season, opportunities dwindled as the squad bowed out of tournaments — often immediately. A spark of hope arrived in July with the addition of ICY, but it was to no avail.
C9 scraped through the qualifiers for the Shanghai Major, where they were bundled out unceremoniously with just a single win over Fnatic.
Related articles
Where to for C9 now?
If groove and Perfecto are next to go, C9 has an opportunity to start fresh — and there's still plenty of talent to pick up. One notable name is Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev, who remains on Natus Vincere's bench.
While it would likely cost C9 an arm and a leg, there's no denying s1mple's ability to draw a crowd and the CS:GO legend showed flashes of brilliance during his short time on loan at Falcons.
There's been little speculation, however, as no-one from Cloud9 has made a statement discussing the future of the CS2 project. We've seen the org issue statements in the past, such as after their exit from CS:GO in 2021 (then due to COVID).
But now, with no active roster up and radio silence from the org, all the community can do is guess. Should C9 wish to remain in CS2, they've got five months to lock in a roster and work up the VRS until the BLAST Austin Major.
For more CS2 news and coverage, check out esports.gg.
