Cloud9 announces new Dota 2 roster
Cloud9 have announced a new Dota2 roster, which will feature Cloud9's golden child Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao, who was one of the inaugural members of the original C9 team alongside his two former teammates who will reunite under the old banner.
Although Cloud9 revealed their return to Dota2 scene at the end of January with a new roster, the North American squad has made some massive roster changes this Tuesday, March 3, when they added three new members on a permanent basis.
Joining Rasmus "MISERY" Filipsen and Johan "pieliedie" Åström will be Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard, EternaLEnVy and Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu, thus creating a European-North American mix of players, who will compete in European Dota 2 scene.
Ace started his Dota2 career in summer of 2012 when he joined Gamer University. He later played for 3DMAX, Team Life, Mousesports, Meet Your Makers, Lianghao, FLipsid3 Tactics, Danish Bears and in January 2017 teamed up with Cloud9. He remained with the North American organisation until May, the same year, when he moved back to Danish Bears and later played for Team Secret and most recently Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Ace left Ninjas in Pyjamas in September 2019 when the team announced a new roster featuring Peter "ppd" Dager, Oliver "Skiter" Lepko, Nico "Gunnar" Lopez, Saahil "Universe" Arora and Malthe "Biver" Winther. Since his exodus from NiP, Ace has been a free agent and will now reunite with his former teammates at C9, hoping to recapture the success he achieved with the team in 2017.
EternaLEnVy and Sneyking are arriving at Cloud9 shortly after their departure from Fighting PandaS. Although their arrival to C9 was not confirmed until this Tuesday, the duo was expected to bolster C9's forces due to their abrupt exit from Fighting PandaS and EternaLEnVy renown as one of the most iconic members of Cloud9's roster.
“We’re really glad to be welcoming EternaLEnVy and Ace back to C9, and we have no doubt Sneyking will make a tremendous impact as well,“ said Gaylen Malone, General Manager at Cloud9.
“We’re all looking forward to seeing this team compete at the highest levels.”
Due to the new additions, however, Cloud9 had to let go of their previous recruits. Francis "FLee" Lee already left the team and is looking for a new home, while young Philipino duo Cheng "vtFαded" Jia Hao and Rolen Andrei Gabriel "Skemberlu" Ong got moved to the bench.
Since returning to the Dota 2 scene, Cloud9 briefly played in the Southeast Asian region, where they participated at ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Southeast Asia Open Qualifier, but failed to make a deep run, as they crashed out of the qualifiers in round one, where they lost to Motivade.Trust Gaming.
With a new roster, Cloud9 will hope to see better success, although due to the fact that Ace and EternaLEnVy are both playing a carry role, some role swaps will be necessary.
The new C9's team will reunite MISERY, pieliedie and EternaLEnVy who all played together at Cloud9 before. Although all good friends, it's the pieliedie-EternaLEnVy connection that stands out. The duo have achieved a top-six finish at The International 2014 with Cloud9 and later played together at Team Secret, Team NP and Fnatic, however, parted ways in September 2018, when Fnatic released its roster.
Since then, pieliedie played for Mineski, Forward Gaming and Newbee, while EternaLEnVy had his own path, which took him to compLexity Gaming, Infamous, Flying Penguins, TEAM TEAM, beastcoast and Fighting PandaS.
Cloud9 have yet to make an appearance at a Dota Pro Circuit event this season, meaning they cannot count on attending TI10. Although nothing is confirmed yet, we might see EternaLEnVy and co. in action in April, when the qualifiers for EPICENTER Major will be played.
