Cloud9 has released one of its most tenured players, Daniel “vice” Kim. This announcement comes a few weeks after the team failed to qualify for the Challengers portion of the Valorant Champions Tour. In all three open and closed qualifiers, the team failed to make it into the event with vice as the in-game leader.
Cloud9 has had its share of roster shuffles since its entrance into Valorant. The team notably let go of its former IGL Josh “shinobi” Abastado and had its star player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo step down from competing to focus on content creation. Recently, Cloud9 brought over a player and coach from its disbanded Korean roster and signed Counter Strike talent Nathan “leaf” Orf.
Replacements for vice on Cloud9
The team was fielding a 6-man roster before the vice announcement. The team signed ranked star Michael “poiz” Possis who had three accounts in the top 10 ranked ladder for the North American server at one time. The young star has only played Duelists so far, so he may not replace vice on agents such as Killjoy and Sova. But, this is not the first time that Cloud9 has had to change its roles around post-roster change.
As for who could be calling plays for the team, Skyler “Relyks” Weaver has also been on the Cloud9 roster since its inception and has some experience as an IGL from his Counter Strike days. But, there are also other options on the table if the squad wants to go in a different direction.
Shinobi has been on the market since his release from the team and could be a welcome reedition to the struggling squad. The team could also build up a new IGL for the team outside of Relyks with help from its coaches Yoon “Autumn” Eu-ddeum and James “JamezIRL” Macaulay.
The team will be competing in the next stage of the VCT following the current Masters event. Following Cloud9’s rough start to the VCT era, and its lack of dominance with TenZ before, this change may be what the team needs to finally qualify for a Challengers main event.
