“I honestly can’t wait for you guys to see some of [our] comps” Cloud9 mCe

Post VCT Champs Istanbul, most of the teams underwent significant roster changes. There were a few - DRX, and Paper Rex to name a couple - who retained most of their roster. But one of the biggest changes was Yay’s exit from the former OpTic Gaming core. He joined an already star-studded roster with Cloud9 mCe as the coach.

Speaking to the media in a press conference after the match, the Cloud9 players and the coach highlighted the changes in meta and how they’ve had to change things.

“I think the biggest thing is we're in a completely different meta. Red Bull is kind of a last hurrah, and a lot of you know, Chamber things. And I feel like Chamber was a huge tool for a lot of teams that weren't good at other things to be good. So there were a lot of holes, they got filled by an absolutely broken agent that people abused. And luckily, we had one of the best ones in the world at it. But you know, we didn't get to showcase that much because we were a new team. And we ran into 100 Thieves, who also has one of the better Chamber players in the world, plus a returning four core with a lot of stuff.”

Cloud9 competed in the Red Bull Home Grounds #3 tournament that took place in Manchester, London. They finished 2nd losing 0-3 to 100 Thieves in the Grand finals. While a few eyebrows were raised, the team looks all set in the new year despite some significant changes in the meta.

"So we've had to change a lot of things around,"mCe said. "And you'll see that with comps and different ideas and things we're running. I don't know if they're good, but we'll find out as we go. And we're kind of playing our own style and a lot of these things. So we put a lot of time into those comps and the ideas that we have, trying to make people comfortable. And then also role-wise making sense whether, you know, ignoring agents, are people first into the site, second into the site, third in, like is this person lurking? Is this person in the right spot? Are we switching off? Do we have traps, or set up things like that, we've definitely put a lot more focus into that coming into it."

When asked about his thoughts on getting yay and Zellsis on the team, Vanity highlighted what he thinks each player brings to the team. 

"Well, I think I think getting yay was because we never had an AWP player," said Vanity. "Like, as long as I've played VALORANT I've never like had a super insane AWP player. And I think that having someone who's so comfortable with the gun helps a lot. Obviously, he's a good teammate and stuff also, but I think that he's definitely just an AWPer. You know, he can't rifle he can't pistol?"

"I think Jordan (Zellsis(, he's like a, like the Energizer Bunny, right? He's like that. I think it helps our team a lot. Because I think that a shortcoming we had last year was that if I wasn't like 100% energy, it was pretty hard for other people to like, step up and like get people involved. It's not like a fault of anyone. It's just how people are. But I think they're really good pickups. I'm happy with the choices we made."

In his first match at VCT LOCK//IN, yay already whipped out the battle Sage on Pearl. He might not have top-fragged but Cloud9 looked like a well-oiled machine. In fact, this was the first time Paper Rex lost 0-2 to a North American VALORANT roster. When asked about future team comps for Cloud9 VALORANT, mCe’s enthusiasm was clearly visible in his reply.

Cloud9 will now face DRX in their next match in the Round of 16. The tournament’s single-elimination format means one of these two heavyweights will be eliminated from the tournament. 

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