sh1ro steps down from Cloud9

The Russian AWPer played with the core of the team for over three years.

Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov has stepped down from Cloud9's starting roster and been made available for transfer, the organization has announced.

The unexpected move comes just over a week after Cloud9's group stage exit from IEM Sydney, where the team recorded a win over Lynn Vision but faltered in games against fnatic and Complexity to be eliminated from the competition.

The Australian event was sh1ro's lowest-rated individual tournament since DreamHack Open Seville 2019, marking a stark departure from his usually exceptional consistency and impact in late-rounds that earned him the title of the third-best player of 2022.

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He played alongside Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov and Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov for over three years in Gambit Youngsters, Gambit, and Cloud9, rising up during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 with online tournament victories in IEM Katowice, EPIC League CIS, IEM Summer, BLAST Premier Spring Final, and IEM Fall CIS.

The team weren't world-beaters when offline play returned, but consistently made deep runs at Big Events, including a 3-4th place finish at PGL Major Stockholm and 5-8th finish at the IEM Rio Major, where they were heavy favorites for the title coming into the playoffs.

The team also won IEM Dallas 2022, finished as the runners-up at BLAST Premier World Final 2021 and ESL Pro League Season 17, and often made the bracket stage of top-tier tournaments despite often falling short of the title.

Today my time in Cloud9 comes to an end," sh1ro said in a post on his Telegram. "For me as a player, it's like the ending of the whole book. I decided to leave this team, and it was one of the most difficult decisions in my career. Right now I don't want to go into details: what, how and why.

"I thought a lot, weighed all pros and cons, and I can't say for sure how correct this decision will be in the future.

"electroNic, Perfecto, Ax1Le, HObbit, I was very glad to play with you in this team and I truly hate to admit that we couldn't reach the goals we set for ourselves. Big thanks to Denis [electroNic], thanks to him I started to understand the game differently. We didn't play much together, but I think I managed to learn something new during this short time."

His departure from the active roster comes as a huge blow to Cloud9, who have been struggling since the end of the tournament break.

The North American organization made a blockbuster move during the off-season by bringing on Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov to replace Timur "⁠buster⁠" Tulepov and Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov, and were one of the most exciting prospects coming out of the transfer window.

However, they have been unable to live up to expectations with their new roster, exiting the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 18 with just one win out of four matches, and also faltered early on at Gamers8 and IEM Sydney.

Identity issues with the in-game leader role have contributed toward their struggles, with electroNic initially taking over captain's duties before recently handing the role over to HObbit.

"sh1ro has made the decision to step down from the Cloud9 CS2 starting lineup," the organization's statement reads. "As much as we would like to have him be part of our team, we want to respect his choice. As a result, we have mutually agreed to make sh1ro available for transfer."

Cloud9 are left with:

Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov
Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov
Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov
Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy

Konstantin "⁠groove⁠" Pikiner (coach)

Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov (transfer-listed)