It’s almost alarming to think that it was less than a year ago that Cloud9 made history in becoming the first North American team to win a Counter-Strike Major.

After their historic win, the roster found themselves ranked 3rd on HLTV’s team rankings, placed only behind a legendary SK Gaming (now MIBR) roster, and the star-studded FaZe, two teams they had beaten on their way to lifting the trophy at ELEAGUE Boston.

As the year progressed, many rosters faltered in the wake of Astralis’ success, the aforementioned SK/MIBR and FaZe have notably had their struggles, but have managed to maintain a competitive level. The same can not be said for Cloud9.

After a disappointing loss in the final of cs_summit 2 to North American rivals Team Liquid, and an even more disappointing group stage exit at Star Series, it quickly became apparent that this roster would not be able to replicate their greatest success to any level of consistency.

As cracks began to show across many teams, it was SK Gaming removing Epitacio “TACO” de Melo and failing to acquire their top target s1mple that resulted in Jake “Stewie2k” Yip’s departure from Cloud9.

In a move that surprised many, fan favourite Stewie2k left the team he had made a name with to pursue further glory with on of CSGO’s most dominant cores, this left C9 without the face of their team and many wondering who they could pick up to replace their talisman.

After a short, unsuccessful period with Pujan “FNS” Mehta, it was clear that C9 had lost their spark and as the now-MIBR lineup continued to struggle, Tarik “tarik” Celik was next out the door as he followed Stewie onto the brazilian roster.

Cloud9 have continued to slip and disappoint as the year has gone on, almost fading into total irrelevance if it wasn’t for their status securing them invites to top tournaments. But even that luxury seems to have expired.

Despite trying out Martin “STYKO” Styk, the organisation finally seems to have a decisive five with the acquisitions of IGL Maikil “Golden” Selim and the iconic Robin “flusha” Rönnquist from FNATIC.

But there’s still a lot to be said about people’s expectations for this lineup.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

Currently we are dealing with a new look Cloud9 roster, but whilst its acquisitions of flusha and Golden appear interesting on paper, the potential for this to carry over to the server is questionable at best.

The Major run was a result of five players all simultaneously hitting their peaks and having near-perfect levels of chemistry. Since then, the three remaining members have all dropped off entirely. Will “RUSH” Wierzba and Timothy “autimatic” Ta, the two riflers who are required as the lineups stars have both openly spoken about their demotivation at the lineup falling apart, a story that is particularly sad considering RUSH suffered the same situation with his previous team, OpTic.

There’s also a question about the attitude of the Major’s MVP, Tyler “skadoodle” Latham. One of the reasons Stewie2k cited in his decision to leave was that skadoodle appeared to have lost his motivation after winning CSGO’s greatest honour, and for a player whose ability on the server has been a point of discussion for a long time, having problems off it too is huge.

This is all without mentioning the most recent signing: flusha. It’s true that flusha’s elevated, MVP winning performance at IEM Katowice 2018 showed fans a flashback to the levels of play that earned the Swede his nickname ‘Señor Vac’. Unfortunately, just like Cloud9’s Major win, that spike in form appears to be a fluke, and as FNATIC failed to reach the play offs at a Major for the first time at the FACEIT Major London 2018, he found himself benched and subsequently on his way to Cloud9.

The only bright spot is the new IGL, Golden. Golden showed huge potential as a tier 1 IGL with FNATIC, his removal sparked huge outrage within the community, so much so that it was originally postponed because outcry was too much for the organisation to handle. A lot of Cloud9’s success in the immediate future will fall on how well he manages to gel this mismatched group on the server.

A Look Into The Crystal Ball

At this point, it already feels as if this roster will have a short life. Cloud9 have already dropped out of HLTV’s top 20, any further drop would simply be embarrassing considering some of the teams ahead of them.

As a now legendary North American organisation, it would be odd to see Cloud9 lose that image, but as performances continue to fault, it is beginning to feel inevitable.

Potentially it could be that the best chance of revival is to become a full swedish lineup, or alternatively look at becoming a mousesports-esque team of ragtags that somehow band together and form something deadly.

Of course this would also mean losing their Major slot, something they would probably want to avoid, especially with the plethora of talent that will be battling in the gauntlet that is the EU minor.

That being said, it isn’t a bad time to be looking into the European scene. There is true talent currently available in the face of Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey and Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, the currently teamless duo would add a much needed level of firepower to the lineup and have huge amounts of experience at CSGO’s highest level.

There’s also the recent benching of Swedish AWPer, Simon “twist” Eliasson. Although his attitude and desire to play at tier 1 levels has been an issue, his talent is undeniable, and he would add a consistency to the crucial role that current member skadoodle is lacking.

This is without looking at players who are currently in teams, too. On twist’s old team Red Reserve there is the rookie Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, a sixteen year old who is touted as being one of the future stars of Swedish CS.

It’s also unavoidable to mention the ridiculous amounts of skill that resides in Hellraiser’s destructive duo Özgür “woxic” Eker and Issa “ISSAA” Murad. The stars were two of the best players at the recent FACEIT Major, again showcasing their ability to be considered as future best players in the world.

I do not own the rights to any of the images used within this article.