IEM Rio Major 2022IEM Rio Major profile: Cloud9
The best team of the online era go into Rio still waiting to retake their crown.
Cloud9 is an organisation steeped in the history of CS:GO. It has attended 11 of the 17 Valve-sponsored Majors and even became Major champions in a miracle run on home soil in Boston. Since acquiring the Complexity roster in 2014, the brand was bonded to that of North American Counter-Strike.
Sean "seang@res" Gares, Mike "shroud" Grzesiek, and Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert helped make the organisation one of the globe's most loved in the summer of 2015, reaching three back-to-back finals to capture the community's goodwill like few other teams could. The arrival of mercurial entry-fragger Jake "Stewie2K" Yip saw Cloud9 break their tier-one trophy duck at ESL Pro League Season 4 finals in 2016 and even clinch Major glory against all odds at ELEAGUE Boston in 2018, defeating FaZe in one of the best Major grand finals of all time.
The squad, however, splintered after the Major victory. Stewie2K and Tarik "tarik" Celik left for MIBR, signalling their lack of belief that Cloud9 could recapture their Boston form. With the team in decline ever since Boston, Henry "HenryG" Greer was brought on as General Manager in 2020 to oversee what was dubbed the 'Colossus' project, but it was cut short before they could even appear on LAN and Cloud9 released their CS team, with no return in sight.
They spotted their opportunity to return two years later. Gambit had sold their roster to the ULTI Agency due to sanctions related to having ties to the Putin government. Jack Etienne and Cloud9's management simply could not pass up signing what was a top-ten team that was reportedly on the market for a fraction of what they would normally cost. Now, they go into Rio — the most open Major for years — with a punter's chance of retaking their online crown and leading Cloud9 back to Major glory.
From the academy to #1 in the world
Cloud9's current iteration's roots go back to August 2020, when Gambit Youngsters added Major winner Abay "HObbit" Khassenov to the core four players of Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov, Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov, Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov, and Timofey "interz" Yakushin. Cloud9's roster remains unchanged to this day, which makes them the longest-lasting roster in the tier one scene.
Under the tutelage of Konstantin "groove" Pikiner, nafany and company grew to become the highest-ranked team in the world in April 2021. They won three prestigious trophies in the first half of the year, and finished second in another two. Ax1Le and sh1ro, players who had been in Gambit Youngsters just a few months before then, were dominating on the world stage.
There was just one problem: COVID. All of the team's success came in the online era, leaving a heavy asterisk over their rapid rise to success. LAN and arena Counter-Strike is a different kettle of fish to online and Gambit failed to recapture their form once we returned to stadiums at the back end of 2021.
At PGL Major Stockholm 2021, the first Major since 2019, they made it to the semi-finals before being blown out of the server by Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's rampant Natus Vincere. Their defeat in the CIS derby, a match-up that had delivered close finals time and time again in the online era, only raised more murmurs about the legitimacy of Gambit's success in the first half of 2021.
Cloud9 didn't even make it to the arena in the next Major, in Antwerp in 2022, before they crumbled under the pressure. A 2-1 loss to Imperial in the group stage, who were ranked 32nd in the world at the time, turned those murmurs into shouts: Cloud9 were declared onliners, deemed too inexperienced and too young to win LANs and return to No. 1 in the world.
It is a narrative nafany has all but confirmed: "Back in early 2021 [coach groove] could sometimes speak and figure out some conflicts or maybe figure out my mistakes in calling. It was working like that, so I could focus only on my game." Now, nafany is on his own, and both Cloud9 and his own form have suffered since.
But just a few weeks later, something clicked. In front of a not insignificant crowd in Dallas, though smaller than at the Majors and with Natus Vincere absent, Cloud9 finally tasted the same success they experienced online in an arena. They even defeated FaZe, the Major champions and best team in the world, in the quarter-finals — a team that was threatening to become their kryptonite.
This was evidence of Cloud9's peak being good enough to win big events. The issue is that, thus far, IEM Dallas remains the only example on LAN. A win in Rio would not only prove the doubters wrong, it would re-frame their entire history. The online era would not be a false dawn, but a sneak peek at what will come. Ranked No. 5 in the world and No. 4 on the HLTV writers' power ranking, it is not impossible Cloud9 can do just that.
A CIS squad under an American brand
More than a few people were surprised when Cloud9 signed the ex-Gambit roster. This was a side remarkably unlike what came before them in the sky-blue; Counter-Strike's premier All-American brand now housed a CIS squad. The heirs of the content kings Stewie2K, tarik, and shroud as the side's star players were the media-shy Ax1Le and sh1ro.
Cloud9 won their Major with a fast-paced and distinctly American style of Counter-Strike. Now, they are one of the scene's most methodical and precise sides, an evolution of the playstyle that has been associated with CIS Counter-Strike for more than twenty years.
And yet, when they marched out on stage at IEM Dallas this year, the five Russians — including coach groove — and one Kazakhstani were given a welcome the likes of which nafany and company had never seen before. Despite their country of birth, the crowd in Dallas gave Cloud9 the same love they had given North America's finest for nearly a decade. That reception spurred them to victory, their first 'home crowd' advantage of their short careers ending in triumph.
And this is why CEO Jack Etienne made the decision to sign the former Gambit roster — this team is supposed to win trophies. He had admired groove for years, since his League of Legends days, and called his presence in the Gambit squad a "game-changer" when it came to signing them. It is in groove as much as the players that he has placed his faith, which means more considering just how talented a squad it was. There are no role conflicts and the core of the squad are all aged below 22 and likely to improve as they grow older.
In sh1ro they have a statistical phenom, the embodiment of the modern AWPer, who is near-impossible to kill and even harder to survive a duel with. Ax1Le, the star rifler, is on a par with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Benjamin "blameF" Bremer by the numbers, with HObbit calling him the "cleanest" and "best rifler in the world." In-game leader nafany is of Andrei "arT" Piovezan's ilk, an ultra-aggressive, inconsistent X-factor that can win maps by himself. HObbit and interz are more supportive, the former — a Major winner in 2017 — adding a much-needed dose of experience and the latter filling out the anchor role for the squad.
Though they have not quite recaptured their online era form, it was not just in terms of trophies that their impact was felt upon the game. Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen was one of many pros left impressed, saying that "Cloud9 came up with this whole new idea of approaching the game. Trying to flank them is really tough [and] they are so good at playing the mid-rounds, having one guy faking and one guy keeping information." It would be high praise from anyone, but that it comes from a four-time Major winner in dupreeh only drums home the truth of the words.
In many ways, Cloud9 conjure up memories of dupreeh's old Astralis and TSM sides. Known for having strong CT sides and a visible tactical identity, TSM could beat anyone in the world — if there was no pressure on them. It took a good three-four years for dupreeh and Nicolai "device" Reedtz's Astralis squad to conquer their demons and fulfil their potential, a process that included countless LAN events.
Cloud9 have not had that luxury. They were already among the favourites at their first LAN thanks to their pandemic form; there was no easing in, they were expected to win and to do so immediately. This increase of expectations was bound to affect such a young team. Despite HObbit being 28, their average age is just 22.7. nafany is 21, one of the scene's youngest captains. Few teams have had as much success in their first eighteen months in tier one as the Cloud9 core, something that we should not forget.
IEM Rio Major expectations
IEM Rio might still come too early for Cloud9. They have not completely expunged the demons that caused them to crumble in Stockholm, Antwerp and Cologne, though their IEM Dallas victory was a solid first step. However, it is not like they only have an outside chance. They are ranked fifth in the world, and fourth on our power rankings. They have two of the very best players in the world in sh1ro and Ax1Le, and HObbit has won a Major before.
A lot of the pressure is on nafany, who publicly admitted that he "ruined this tournament for [his] team" after IEM Cologne. "When you have an opening fragger who isn't getting opening frags then it is obviously hard to play. And as an in-game leader, I was not so good this tournament," he continued. His inconsistency individually is well-documented, his ultra-aggressive style leading to Cloud9 having to recover from 4v5 situations more often than they would like.
His calling style has come under fire too. Cloud9's style revolves around methodically taking map-control, yet they have consistently had the worst flash assists in the top ten this year. When you look at FaZe, the best LAN team in the world, there is a real stylistic clash; Finn "karrigan" Andersen's calling has a level of unpredictability and pace that nafany cannot emulate just yet.
Yet, when nafany is on song, Cloud9 have as much firepower as any squad in the world. To win in Rio he does not need to solve his inconsistency permanently, he just needs to get in shape for this one tournament. Only a few best of threes stand in the way of Cloud9, it is not impossible that they time a purple patch perfectly and defeat FaZe like they did in Dallas.
nafany has made his approach clear: "We don't want any result except a win." There is not only external pressure, but internal too. From the outside, repeating their top-four placing from Stockholm might be considered a success. But inside the team, defeat at any stage could be seen as the return of their 'onliner' tag, their mentality deserting them when they need it most once again.
A win in Rio would definitively end that narrative. Anything less than that, whether it is fair or not, and the burden of Cloud9's online success could continue to haunt them into 2023.
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Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács
Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert
Kory 'SEMPHIS' Friesen
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Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin
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