After a run of poor results during the summer leg of the Heroes of the Storm Global Circuit, the former world champion team Cloud9 has disbanded. Both Kun “iDream” Fang and Derek “DunkTrain” Arabian have retired from competitive play, leaving Keiwan “k1pro” Itakura and John Paul “King Caffeine” Lopez to form their own team, Crescendo.

Yahoo esports spoke with KingCaff about the final days of C9 and how he expects the next chapter to read for his new team.

What happened at the ESL Summer Regional in Burbank?

Both Naventic and Gale Force recognized we weren’t doing well internally and refused to scrim us [Cloud9] for the month leading up to the last qualifier. We could only scrim Brain Power and they learned all our drafts including our preference for Anub’arak, which is why you see they first picked it every game.

What led to Cloud9 disbanding?

Obviously there was some stuff going on that isn’t really public. Some cracks in the team and in our synergy and friendship. It just wasn’t leading to an environment that was conducive for success. I was the first one to make the move to leave the roster after the tournament because it didn’t seem like it was going to go in a positive direction anymore. It seemed like people had been around each other for too long and everyone just needed something fresh.

What were your options at this point? Did you ever consider retiring?

I considered joining some of the top teams in NA. I also considered making my own roster. Several of the top teams came to me to join their roster. Making my own roster came out on top, however. I never considered retiring. I know I’m still the best tank in the region and I have the potential to be the best tank in the world.

What made you decide on adding Glaurung to the team?

It all just came down to scrim results. There are a few different things that K1 and I rate players on. One, most importantly, is their general skill level. You have to be at a certain level of skill, being able to hit your buttons at the right time and bait abilities, you know, making smart plays all the time. The second most important thing is communication and making sure that everyone on your team is aware of what you’re doing and what you can do in a fight, outside a fight, during rotation, etc. With this new roster, everyone communicates. It reminds me of the old C9 where everyone’s giving important information all the time and people aren’t being quite. We tried out a ton of people, basically all the free agents and even some people from other teams. We’ve only lost one scrim in three days against top teams like GFE, AA, Murlocs and it was with a really silly draft with no healer. This team is really strong. We have some crazy potential.

View photos King Caffeine at the ESL Summer Regional (Blizzard) More

What about aPm(MATRE) and Prismaticism? Some people must think those two are a little random.

It does seem random because honestly the general viewership of Heroes can’t see what’s important in a player. A lot of people won’t really notice aPm and Prismat but honestly they are two of the best in their roles in the region. They were the core of TNC’s roster. Prismat is a really solid ranged player. He’s not afraid to step up to anyone. He has really interesting ideas as far as draft. He brings a different outlook on the game that I think is important for our growth. aPm is really good mechanically and he’s also the most aggressive support I’ve played with that knows his limits. He does the Kenma thing where he’s always biting in on wolf except he always gets out…unlike Kenma. aPm knows how to bite in, get down to 1 hp and kite out – soaking as much damage as possible. On Monk he’ll go in and get his full punches off an get out. That also comes with communication.

For support the most important thing is letting your team know how many heals you have up and how long your cool-downs are. It’s icing on the cake if your support can actually get in there and do damage on the focused target and survive. That’s really hard to do. These players are very underrated in general; I don’t think they’ll stay that way for long.

Story continues