Cloud9 run to the forest

Cutting support players isn’t new. EnVyUs cut Kio. MIBR cut TACO. VP cut SANJI.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes the problem really is just the guy on your team who can’t shoot as good. There was outrage at SANJI’s removal, but FL1T hasn’t turned out too badly, has he?

Which brings us to Cloud9. Overdrive and now HLTV have reported that Cloud9 are trialling replacements for their support player of interz. Which sh1ro rubbished, obviously. Players always do.

The favourite to replace him is Forester, Entropiq’s lurker, and a serious player. He sports a 1.12 rating on LAN this year and battered Astralis at Pro League.

It’s the classic change. It’s tried and tested. You offset the chemistry and selflessness of interz with a bloke who simply kills more people.

SANJI was cut from VP, but it wasn’t FL1T who replaced his roles — it was Qikert. Forester isn’t as pure a star as FL1T was (he even plays B on Mirage CT-Side), but if he joins nafany or HObbit can pick up some of the slack.

This very well might work. Cloud9 haven’t made a roster change since HObbit joined in mid-2020, and they do keep falling at the same hurdle.

It took a roster move for Astralis (adding gla1ve) and Liquid (adding Stewie2k) to overcome their choking issues. Why can’t Cloud9 try the same?

The problem comes if Cloud9 pick one of the other players they’re trialling. Along with the very good Forester, HLTV think that Cloud9 are also trialling buster, who’s okay, and SANJI, which makes zero sense at all.

They’re decent anchors, but they’re not better than interz are they? It’s a sideways move, if not backwards. It’s a move for the sake of it, to show the community you understand something is wrong but not exactly what is.

It says that you don’t know who to cut, so you just swapped your support for a different one.

The bolder move is to cut nafany, to remove the system that seems to keep failing Cloud9 in the biggest moments. There are IGLs out there worthy of a shot, whether it be chopper or jerry or whoever. HObbit might be off to NAVI, meaning you can sign a Patsi or mir (or YEKINDAR) to replace nafany’s aggression while having a more measured IGL.

It’s dangerous, but at least that risk might get some reward. Swapping interz for anyone other than Forester is just a waste of time.