The Last of the First have been Benched

Shroud and n0thing were the last two remaining players from Cloud 9's original roster. The original roster consisted of SeanG@res, Semphis, Hiko, n0thing, and Shroud. They have been playing for Cloud 9 since the middle of 2014. Shroud had previously stated that he was thinking about retirement, but in a later interview, he stated that he will stay in the scene as long as he was still performing. n0thing's benching came as a tiny bit of a surprise since there was not much info leading up to it.

Mike "Shroud" Grzesiek

Jordan "Nothing" Gilbert

New Players Coming In

Will "RUSH" Wierzba and Tarik "tarik" Celik have been transferred from Optic and into the Cloud 9 roster. Team Optic has had really lackluster performances recently and it really showed when they had failed to qualify for the major. This team could be the super team that North America needs.

Rush's thoughts and statements on the matter:
(TwitLonger)

It's pretty crazy to think it's been close to 2 YEARS on OpTic, when it feels like just yesterday we were winning the E-League road to Vegas tournament (our first LAN under OpTic). The love and support we received from the fans back then was like nothing any of us have experienced. It really dawns on me how lucky we were to land such a passionate fan base.
Since then it's been a pretty long journey of ups and downs. Lately though its been more of the latter unfortunately. Nothing lasts forever. The feeling you get when you taste being on top, only for it to come crashing down so quickly is something I can't get past. It is because of this that I've decided to join Cloud9 alongside Tarik. I've been incredibly patient with this roster, turning down a good number of offers during my tenure on the team. This last one I got is one I really couldn't turn down.
It's been nearly 8 months now where we haven't had a solidified roster. Always a stand-in or trial, nothing set. It’s one of the most frustrating periods I’ve had in CS because there is no point where the team gets better. The process of bringing in a new 5th continually is such a detriment to a teams growth. In this day in age for cs most players are overvalued and this made it really hard for us to attain a player we were comfortable with. We tried the whole time to get players we wanted, but in the end nothing came to fruition. We were just about done figuring our roster (for OpTic), where we would have had to settle on our 3rd/4th option. It is at this point where the C9 offer came in. Bare in mind this all happened in the last week (everything I said on the BudLight stream was true at the time). I thought about whether I should continue grinding on OpTic with an uncertain future, or take a leap of faith in what I see to be an NA dream team. Hopefully you all realize why I made this choice, and continue to support me in the next step of my career.
Not many people drop everything they have to move across the world to pursue their dream, and Oscar did it for well over a year. I will never forget the the fun moments (and the OpTic Fiat) you, Adri, and me experienced while living in the OpTic CS house. To NAF and daps, we started from basically nothing in the eLevate/conquest days where everyone thought of us as nobodies and yet we won the Minor and qualified for our first Major. Beating HR 16-14 to qualify remains my most memorable moment to date. I am happy you (daps) remain a good friend even a year after your departure from the team. Huge respect to Peter (stanislaw) for taking the IGL reigns and legitimately turning us into a world contending team within 2 months. To this day I wish you stayed, but I will always respect your decision. Also to Hector, who was at the CS house almost daily to make sure me and Oscar had what we needed/wanted and came to countless events to support us. I really hope our paths cross again friend. Hitch, J, Create, and all the OpTic scuf house homies; I've never felt more at home in an organization, it really felt like a family. And of course thanks to the #GreenWall for all the support in this roller coaster of a team, I wouldn't be where I am now without you guys.

Also one last shoutout to the guys who came into a mess and did their best with the situation they were given. Spencer (Hiko), Jason, James (Hazed), and especially Chet (imapet); whom puts more time into the game than anyone I have seen. I am sorry things didn’t work out and respect the effort you all gave us.

Cloud 9 will be going into ESL One New York's Closed Qualifier with the following:

• Jake "Stewie2k" Yip
• Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham
• Will "RUSH" Wierzba
• Tarik "tarik" Celik
• Braxton "swag" Pierce (Standing-in for autimatic)

This upcoming season is going to be a very exciting time for professional Counter Strike. The player break that is taking place has probably held the most roster changes in the history of CSGO. I, personally, am very excited to watch all of this play out in the actual matches in the coming weeks.