Cloud9 officially announces Spring 2023 roster and staff
One of the most successful esports organizations in the west, Cloud9 of the League Championship Series (LCS) announced their "League of Legends" roster and coaching staff with an update video posted on Nov. 24, and while their midlane acquisition was expected, their head coach pick was not. Members of C9's membership service Stratus saw the announcement two days early.
With a roster of Fudge-Blaber-Jensen-Berserker-Zven, C9 won the 2022 LCS Summer Championship and went to the World Championship as the top seed from North America. They went 1-5 in the Group Stage and were the first team eliminated from Groups.
https://twitter.com/lcsmirakkel/status/1592592277700239360
Founder and CEO Jack Etienne announced that the championship roster would only be replacing Danish midlaner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, who left to reportedly join the LCS's Dignitas. Etienne said he believes that rosters changing more than one player at a time often suffer, and four of C9's five players -- Australian toplaner Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami, American jungler Robert "Blaber" Huang, Korean botlaner Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol and Danish support Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen -- wanted to run last year's team back.
Cloud9 poses for a promotional photo for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship.Who's new to the team?
The midlane acquisition, Dimitri "Diplex" Ponomarev, is a German 19-year-old from Vitality.Bee, the academy team of Team Vitality from the Europe, Middle East and Africa Championship (EMEA). In the announcement video, Etienne praised his mechanics, and the 49-year-old CEO cited his high potential as the reason for the pickup. This is Diplex's first time playing for a major region team. BLIX.GG reporter Alejandro "anonimotum" Gomis was the first to report that he would play for C9 in Spring 2023.
Spanish coach Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez rejoins C9 after a year as assistant coach of the LCS's 100 Thieves. The 28-year-old began his coaching career with a one-year stint as the head coach of the EMEA's Fnatic and joined C9 as a strategic coach in December 2020. He took over as head coach in May 2021 when Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin stepped down from the role after the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational.
Mithy replaces American coach Maxwell "Max Waldo" Waldo, who became head coach after his mentor Nick "LS" De Cesare left the team on Feb. 1. The 23-year-old will coach Fudge as a top lane positional coach as well as help out with other coaching duties.
Etienne said Mithy wasn't expecting to be a head coach in 2021 and wasn't fully ready, but after almost a year with 100T, the 49-year-old CEO says Mithy is now ready to take the helm.
Additionally, Zixing "Tails" Jie swapped roles from academy head coach to LCS assistant coach, while LCS assistant coach Seong "Reven" Sang-hyeon moved into Tails's former role. Former C9 support Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam is now the starting support for the academy team after a four-month stint as positional coach with the team.
Feature photo by Lance Skundrich and Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games.