Cloud9 announce new CS:GO roster

North American esports organisation Cloud9 has officially announced its new CS:GO roster following a string of disappointing results in recent months.

The team has dropped Will "Rush" Wierzba to the bench and released René "cajunb" Borg and Daniel "vice" Kim, who had been with the team since April and March respectively. Meanwhile, coach Soham "valens" Chowdhury will remain with Cloud9, taking on the role of Head of Data Science.

Timothy "autimatic" Ta is the only player to remain on the team, having first joined in August 2016. He will be joined by Damien "daps" Steele, Kenneth "koosta" Suen, Tyson "TenZ" Ngo and Spaniard Óscar "mixwell" Cañellas. As coach, James "JamezIRL" Macauley is joining from Ghost Gaming.

daps and mixwell previously played together under ELEAGUE winners OpTic Gaming (though daps wasn't there for the win), also joined by rush. It'll be interesting to see whether they can get this chemistry back on track and bring some more glory to North America.

“Some things can only be achieved with a deliberate step in a new direction," said valens. "These changes will help perpetuate the mindset that we all need to be willing to be a beginner every single morning. Thank you to Mike, Dan, Rene, Will, and Kevve for trying to right the ship-- I am excited to see where they continue their journey. Without further ado, please join us in welcoming James, Damian, Tyson, Oscar, and Kenny to build a team with Tim that we can all be proud of! I'll be cheering… try and stop me. ”

The team's first test will be at BLAST Pro Series: Los Angeles 2019, which kicks off next weekend on Saturday, July 13.