Cloud9’s Latest Roster Shuffle
Cloud9 recently made it official. Fabien ‘kioShiMa’ Fiey is now on Cloud9, bringing their total number of Americans down to two. (If you don’t include the coach) I was pretty excited about this pickup, mostly because of how good Kio is. I’ve really enjoyed watching him and autimatic, so I figured I’d enjoy watching this team a lot.
KioShiMa was removed from FaZe Clan for Olofmeister August 20th of last year after a lackluster showing at the PGL Major in Krakow. Kio had been a big part in FaZe’s success by facilitating for Rain and Niko and supporting in a team full of all-stars. He was one of the most important pieces in that team, and his playstyle should hypothetically let him slot into most teams with a predefined hierarchy and enable the team’s star players.
Unfortunately, those are two major things that Cloud9 lacks right now. Their roster has been in flux since March of this year, when Skadoodle retired, then unretired, then they lost their two star players and rotated through 3 IGLs ending with Golden. Needless to say they haven’t been particularly successful since bring home the Major trophy, and this roster move seems like a solid effort to turn their organization around. KioShiMa was one of the best free agents available and, whether he works on this particular roster or not, is a valuable pickup.
Flusha, kio, and tim all shine while doing pretty similar jobs. They all have rock solid aim, they’re smart players, and they play well when holding small sites and fending off enemies. All of that is important on a balanced, well-constructed team, but having so many of that kind of player might be a problem.
In earlier iterations of this roster, I was a big proponent of trying to turn autimatic into a star player. I thought he had a nice spray and could do well in a Coldzera sort of role, being put into late round situations. Instead of maximizing his talents as a rifler, autimatic has been put on the AWP. This is their only real option as there isn’t a true AWPer on the roster, and it seems as though they don’t want to run five rifles.
Cloud9 is also missing a verified star player. Flusha hasn’t been Flusha in a long time, and none of the other players on this team have showed that kind of potential. Whether Golden can turn tim or Flusha (back) into stars is yet to be seen. This team does have some solid pieces for the first time in a while which is exciting.
I’d be surprised if this roster goes unchanged for too long. It seems like another transitional step on the way towards tier one contention again. KioShiMa is a solid asset to hold and has the potential to work on most rosters, which is always a plus. All in all, I don’t have much faith in them, although I’m going to withhold judgment until I see them play at the ECS Finals this weekend.
They are a team worth keeping an eye out for, as Cloud9 is a sizable organization with money to spend and should keep getting better. I’d say they’re worth a medium sized underdog bet if you can get them at solid odds, but not someone I’m terribly excited about.
Leave a Reply