Cloud9 leaves CSGO due to “remote training” struggles

According to a pair of new reports and an official announcement, Cloud9 are leaving CSGO and disbanding their team due to “financial” and “remote training” struggles, as the organization takes a “pause” from competing in the storied esport. 

Cloud9 has been a big name in the Counter-Strike esports community for what seems like forever, but the organization will be taking a step back from competition, at least temporarily, according to new reports and an anouncement from C9.

According to a report from March 26 by French esports site 1pv, sources obtained by CS/Valorant reporter neL said that following the team’s failure to qualify for the EPL Season 13 playoffs, Cloud9 decided to stop their CSGO “project.” Subsequently, the organization confirmed their temporary disbandment.

“The players have all been placed on the bench and Cloud9 could very well stop its involvement in the Counter-Strike scene,” 1pv initially reported.

Shortly after 1pv’s report came out, CSGO news site RushB also dropped a scoop of their own. They managed to speak directly to Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne, who confirmed that the team would be taking a break.

Etienne reports ongoing global events have drug on longer than the US-based org thought they would initially, and caused “undue stress and difficulties in providing bootcamps, housing, and the mental health of the players,” according to RushB.

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It’s certainly not what Cloud9 CSGO fans want to hear, and for fans of the esport it almost seems like an out of season April Fool’s joke from the team that won the $500,000 Boston ELeague Major just in 2018.

Cloud9’s CSGO roster at the time news broke is as follows:

• Alex “⁠ALEX⁠” McMeekin
• William “⁠mezii⁠” Merriman
• Patrick “es3tag” Hansen
• Ricky “⁠floppy⁠” Kemery
• Erick “Xeppaa” Bach

If you’ve been keeping tabs on CSGO news of late though, it hasn’t been hard to see the cracks appearing in Cloud9’s infamous “Colossus,” parting ways with Turkish AWPer Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker just three months into his three year contract, and of course the ever-growing popularity of Valorant esports.

In the org’s official announcement, they emphasized the inability to assemble together in North America as a decisive factor — professing that goals could not be met given the current global emphasis on “remote training.”

While Etienne told RushB that Cloud9 would not be leaving CSGO esports forever and would be back eventually, the chances of the team looking anything like the Colossus are slim to none.

The announcement confirms that the C9 “remain passionate about competing in CS:GO,” but that they can’t return to the esport until “conditions allow us to work and train in the ways we know help teams to be successful.”

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Exactly what will happen to the now-benched players remains to be seen, but they, more than likely, will find homes on other team, or make the jump to Valorant as a lot of their peers have done already.