After weeks of speculation, the wait is finally over: the brand new Cloud9 CS:GO roster lineup has finally been unveiled.

Announcing the roster changes on their weekly new show “The 9s” the new roster will see Timothy “autimatic” Ta stay on the starting roster, while being joined by four new players. Damian “daps” Steele, Kenneth “Koosta” Suen, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, and Óscar “mixwell” Cañellas Colocho have been added to the team, while James “JamezIRL” Macaulay join as the team’s new Head Coach, replacing Soham “valens” Chowdhury, who will be moving to a Data Scientist position on the team.

Following the announcement, the team also revealed the whereabouts of the now-former members of the team, with Rush moving to the team’s bench, Golden remaining on loan to NiP, and Vice and Cajunb being released from the roster.

Plans for the Year

The new roster will make its debut at the BLAST Pro Series: Los Angeles (BPSLA) on the 13th of this month, where they’ll be looking to make a big splash against some of the world’s best competition in the likes of FaZe Clan, NRG, and Team Liquid. A strong showing there and at following BLAST Pro events could easily see the team qualify for the $500,000 prize pool Grand Finals in December, a near Major-level event.

Having given up their spot at the Starladder Berlin Major, and being unable to qualify for one of the extra spots, the team is likely to spend the rest of the year building up team coordination and strategy ahead of a qualifier campaign for the as of yet unannounced Spring Major.

Cloud 9 CS:GO Roster Team Roles

The segments following the announcement gave insight into Cloud9’s strategy going into this roster shuffle, with the surprise revelation that the team had actually been looking to mix things up since before the Boston Major last year, and how winning the event had only delayed their motivation to shake things up.

The team has spent an enormous amount of time deciding on players and what roles they’d fill on the team, though were quick to choose former NRG IGL Daps to be the team’s new captain and IGL. Autimatic will be moving to rifler on the team along with Koosta and Tenz, while Mixwell takes over the AWPer role for the team.

Valens’ move to Data Analyst was also highly praised, as the former coach had long talked of his desire to support the team through a more analytical lens. Meanwhile, new coach JamezIRL has a pretty decent track record as a coach for Ghost Gaming and Torqued, and was a major component in putting this roster together.

The roster change comes after a year and a half of struggle as the team looked to find a new identity following the departure of much of it’s 2018 Boston Major winning lineup shortly after the tournament’s conclusion, with Autimatic being the only remaining member from that period.

This lineup looks to have a lot going for it, and we can’t wait to see how they perform in just a little less than two weeks time at BPSLA.

If you would like to read the official Cloud9 press release on their new roster you can do so here.