Cloud9 sign NAVI CSGO duo to form superteam for CS2
João Ferreira/DexertoCloud9 has announced the signing of former NAVI duo Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy and Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov for its CS:GO roster.
Cloud9 has announced the signing of former NAVI players Perfecto and electroNic, confirming Dexerto’s previous reporting.
In a Twitter post announcing the roster, the organization also revealed the CS:GO team’s starting lineup of Perfecto, electroNic, Abai ‘HObbit’ Hasenov, Dmitriy ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov and Sergey ‘Ax1Le’ Rykhtorov with Konstantin ‘groove’ Pikiner as the head coach.
This means the former NAVI duo are replacing Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov and Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov on the Cloud9 starting roster. electroNic will presumably take up IGL duties from nafany and Perfecto will continue to play his supportive style.
Cloud9 picks up two new players for CS:GO roster
The announcement comes two weeks after NAVI announced its new-look roster for the rest of the 2023 season, benching both Perfeto and electroNic.
Both teams seem to be building star-studded rosters ahead of the switch from CS:GO to CS2 sometime this summer. Valve has yet to announce the date for when CS2 will officially release or when the esport will switch over to the new title.
Cloud9 has not had the best 2023 so far. The team started off hot with a second-place finish at ESL Pro League and a first-place performance at BLAST Premier: Spring European Showdown. But outside of those tournaments, the team hasn’t made much of a dent at top-tier events.
The organization is hoping that the former NAVI duo can help shore up their squad for the back half of the year.
With NAVI, Perfecto and electroNic won the PGL Stockholm Major in 2021 and placed second at the PGL Antwerp Major in 2022. In 2023, the duo helped NAVI to a top-four placement at IEM Rio and a top-12 showing at the BLAST Paris Major.
