After a year without a Counter-Strike roster, Cloud9 have returned to the scene with the acquisition of the former Gambit Esports team that had been playing under the ‘Players’ name.
At the end of March 2021, Cloud9 confirmed that they would be leaving the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports scene due to “financial” and “remote training” struggles – if only temporarily.
As teams had started basing themselves out of Europe for competition, having a North American-focused roster presented challenges, but there has always been a clamor for the organization to return given their storied history within Counter-Strike.
Well, after 13 months away from the scene, Cloud9 have signed a powerhouse roster by the way of the former Gambit Esports squad that has just qualified for the PGL Antwerp Major.
The former Gambit roster, including nafany, will now be under Cloud9.The North American org announced the news on April 24 after it was confirmed that the squad would be headed to the Legends stage of the upcoming Major.
“We finally signed CS:GO Players,” they said in a simple tweet, revealing that they had signed the ‘Players’ team which had formerly played under the Gambit Esports banner.
The talented line-up had been banned from competing under the Gambit tag due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, but had been allowed to play under a natural name. Given the ban, the team had been up for sale and have now found a new home, though there is no word on the price tag of the move.
We finally signed CS:GO Players. pic.twitter.com/MawBtLf3fX
— Cloud9 (@Cloud9) April 24, 2022
As noted, the team has qualified for the upcoming PGL Major in Antwerp and has held a spot in ESL Pro League.
They will now be able to compete in those competitions in Cloud9 colors, which is always a welcome sight for CS sticker collectors.
Cloud9’s Counter-Strike roster now consists of:
- Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov
- Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov
- Abay ‘HObbit’ Khasenov
- Sergey ‘Ax1Le’ Rykhtorov
- Timofey ‘interz’ Yakushin
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