Dota 2 team Cloud9 announced changes to its roster which actually aren't all that surprising. To be specific, the team released one player while benching two. In return they signed on Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao and two other new players.
Back in January of this year, Cloud9 announced that it was coming out with a new roster for the current 2019/2020 DPC Season. The organization had disbanded its Dota 2 team back in August 2017. In addition to announcing a new roster for Dota 2, Cloud9 also made the choice to start playing in the Southeast Asia region, with plans to move to North America for future events. You can read more about that here.
Cloud9's latest outing was at the Open Qualifiers for the ESL One Los Angeles 2020. The team only managed to get to the Round of 8 before being eliminated by Motivade.Trust Gaming.
So, what roster changes have been made? Before the reorganization, Cloud9 was composed of:
- Rolen Andrei Gabriel "skem" Ong
- Cheng "vtFαded" Jia Hao
- Rasmus "MISERY" Filipsen
- Francis "FLee" Lee
- Johan "pieliedie" Åström
In this recent move, Cloud9 made the decision to release FLee while benching skem and vtFαded. Replacing them are EternaLEnVy, with the team also signing on Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard and Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu. This also means that MISERY will shift from Position 3 to Position 4.
As mentioned, EternaLEnVy joining isn't that much of a surprise. He was part of the original Cloud9 Dota 2 roster when it was established back in 2014. He left a year later to join Team Secret. EternaLEnVy again returned to Cloud9 in 2017 before the team was disbanded in the same year.
EternaLEnVy then became a part of seven different teams. The latest was Fighting PandaS, which he formed just after The International 2019. Since then, the PandaS have only managed to become part of the MDL Changdu Major. While they did manage to enter the Playoffs in the Upper Bracket, they were eliminated from the tournament without winning a single game and finished in the 9th-12th position.
While the PandaS didn't make the cut for the ESL Los Angeles Major, they did manage to qualify for the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor, which starts Thursday. However, less that two weeks from the star of the SLi Minor, EternaLEnVy, along with Sneyking, announced that they were leaving the PandaS. You can read more about that story here.
When EternaLEnVy made that announcement, those who have been following the Dota 2 esports scene had a feeling that the two were joining Cloud9. This is because EternaLEnVy had been a former Cloud9 player and Sneyking pretty much followed him. As it turns out, the hunch was right.
Since it's already too late, we'll only get to see how Cloud9 performs for the upcoming fourth major. With this being EternaLEnVy's eighth Dota 2 team since Cloud9 was disbanded in 2017, the question that remains now is if there's going to be a ninth team. What do you think?
