While everyone has been focused on the OG drama, another Dota 2 team was working behind the scenes. After more than two years of being out of the scene, North American team Cloud9 officially announced its new roster.
Before we reveal who's on the team, let's take a quick look at what happend in the past. It was towards the end of August 2017 when the organization announced that it was disbanding its Dota 2 team. At that time the team was composed of Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao, Adrian "Fata" Trinks, Arif "MSS" Anwar, Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling, and Johan "pieliedie" Åström. Since then, the former members have joined different teams.
In a statement regarding this new roster, Cloud9 Senior General Manager Gaylen Malone shared that Dota 2 not only remains to be a phenomenon, but continues to offers some of esports' greatest moments. She went on to say that Cloud9 "couldn’t be more excited to be a part of that once again."
Meanwhile Cloud9 CEO and Owner Jack Etienne revealed in the same statement that ever since Cloud9 departed "the Dota 2 space in 2017 we’ve been keeping an eye on finding the best time to re-enter and I’m glad to say it’s finally arrived." These players have been successful and that "everyone here is looking forward to what they’ll do as a team,” he added.
One more thing before we reveal the roster, Cloud9 is going to initially play in the Southeast Asia region and then move to the North America region for future events. That said, let's meet the new team:
- Rolen Andrei Gabriel "skem" Ong (Position 1)
- Cheng "vtFαded" Jia Hao (Position 2)
- On loan from EHOME
- Rasmus "MISERY" Filipsen (Position 3)
- Francis "FLee" Lee (Position 4)
- Johan "pieliedie" Åström (Position 5)
As mentioned, skem is going to be at position 1 and lately has been on a roll with Neon Esports. Meanwhile, vtFaded and EHOME took home the championship at the Hainan Master Cup back in November 2019. For those familiar, FLee has been in the competitive Dota 2 scene since all the way back in 2015 and recently helped Demon Slayer get second place at DreamLeague Season 12. MISERY is no stranger to the team, as he was a part of Cloud9 in 2015 before moving to Digital Chaos to get a second place finish during TI6. Finally, there is pieliedie, who like MISERY, is rejoining Cloud9.
So what are your thoughts on this team? What are their chances in the remaining tournaments for this season? Let us know in the comments section below.
