Cloud9 was founded in 2012 and has made an appearance in each prominent esports title to date. C9 is most well-known for their League of Legends team due to having the longest standing roster of the same players. They also have teams in CS:GO, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Hearthstone, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Smite and Overwatch.
C9’s League of Legends team has always been one of the top competitors in the North American League Championship Series. One way or another, the team has always managed to find their way to the World Championship. However, they have yet to secure higher than a 5th-8th place finish.
Numerous Hearthstone players also compete under the Cloud9 banner: Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh, Cong “StrifeCro” Shu, Jan “ek0p” Palys and James “Firebat” Kostesich. These four have many first place victories under their belts and often place high in tournaments. It’s rare to find a single Hearthstone tournament that doesn’t at least have one representative from Cloud9.
While Cloud 9’s CS:GO team doesn’t always bring home trophies, they are certainly a force to be reckoned with in North America. After the departure of long-time in-game leader Sean “seang@res” Gares, the team’s controversial decision to pick up rising North American aimer Jake “Stewie2k” Yip has stood the test of time. Without seang@res, Cloud9’s Terrorist sides have been incredibly flimsy–oddly enough, however, the team manages to compensate for this shortcoming by consistently putting up massive CT side scorelines. The true test of Cloud9’s CS:GO roster will come at the next Major, where the North Americans will have their sights set firmly on making it out of the group stages, an accomplishment that has eluded them since ESL One Cologne 2014.
