The famous North American esports organization Cloud 9 has just recently announced that they are looking for a new fifth player for their Counter Strike roster. Cloud 9 in the eyes of many are one of the premier organizations within North American Counter Strike, yet their Counter Strike team has failed to live up to those expectations over recent times. Over the last couple of months, teams like Optic and Liquid have supplanted Cloud 9 at the top of the North American scene, and others like TSM have at the very least caught up to their level. For many, this change comes off as a sight for sore eyes. Cloud 9 now find themselves in a transitional phase as they look to revamp their roster in order to close the distance that has opened up between them and the top of the North American scene.

Needed Change

The last three months on the international circuit for Cloud 9 has provided enough evidence to conclude that Alec “Slemmy” White’s play is too poor on an individual level to be on a tier one team as Cloud 9 hope to be.

Slemmy’s inclusion into the team initially looked like it was one geared towards success; after all, from the IGL position, he managed to transform Cloud 9 from a team that couldn’t differentiate up and down into one that had proper defaults and executes. Be that as it may, Slemmy’s prowess as a tactician has not been sufficient enough to outweigh his lack of fragging ability. Regularly, Cloud 9 found themselves losing close matches versus top teams with Slemmy struggling at the bottom of the scoreboard.

Despite having left the starting roster, there is still hope for the working relationship between Slemmy and Cloud 9 to continue, only in a different form. Members of Cloud 9 in the past have mentioned with deliberation about moving Slemmy to the coach role. As such, this begs the question about what remains on the cards for these two parties. This move by Cloud 9 to bolster their firepower comes off not only as a needed change but also one that brings about questions in regards to Cloud 9’s coaching staff.

The current optimal scenario for Cloud 9 clearly is to find a way to retain Slemmy’s services as a tactician while bolstering their roster in terms of firepower.  However, the sad truth about optimal scenarios is that they rarely play out in reality as they are worked out on paper.

The Chosen One

Tempered expectations are not something fans are typically known for, especially the Cloud 9 fanbase. The Cloud 9 fan base has historically been a fanbase with relatively high expectations. As such, these expectations will inevitably find themselves onto the shoulders of whatever poor soul finds themselves stepping into Slemmy’s position on the main roster.

While the fanbase will look to this new fifth player to deliver Cloud 9 onto the tier one stage, the fact of the matter is that this roster change, while important in terms of additional firepower, will not singlehandedly fix all the ailments that have plagued this Cloud 9 roster.

Cloud 9’s struggles on the international stage over the past year has not been solely due to a lack of firepower, rather, it has been a systematic breakdown by Cloud 9 as a team. Cloud 9 as a team over the past year has been one of the most frustrating disappointments to watch on the international stage. On paper they have seemingly built a roster more fearsome than any roster that has existed under the organization’s shadow in the past, yet this roster has failed to accumulate any sort of meaningful resume on the international stage.

Players like Skadoodle and Shroud have failed to reach anywhere close to their ceiling in this Cloud 9 lineup, and others like Stewie2k are still too early in their career to be relied on as a primary star. A simple addition of a fragger into this lineup will not serve to fix the core issues that have plagued Cloud 9 for so long. The problem for this iteration of Cloud 9 has never been a question of firepower, but rather it has been the question of how to catalyze that firepower within the actual server.

The Path yet Untouched

Make no mistake -- Cloud 9 have the ability within themselves to become a team to be reckoned with internationally based on firepower alone. The problem is that in order to succeed on the international stage, simple factors like talent are not enough; talent is a dime a dozen on the international stage.

Rather, in order to succeed on that grandiose stage, it requires Cloud 9 to continue to grow in areas which they had found themselves stagnating in. These upcoming months will require Cloud 9 members to not only take steps up in terms of individual play, but also will require the entire team unit to grow into a cohesive unit.

The road to the top may be a shiny path on the outside, but the reality of the situation is that it is laden with traps all across. A ton of teams attempt to travel across the path, but most end up failing. Cloud 9, at points in history, found themselves almost to the end of the path, only to slip and fall.

Now, once again Cloud 9 find themselves at the beginning of this road with only one goal in mind -- success. Only time is capable of revealing the mystery of whether this Cloud 9 roster is truly capable of overcoming these large trials ahead.