Cloud9 has turned to the past in its Counter-Strike 2 revamp for the next season, reportedly recruiting former rifler Timofey “interz” Yakushin to join a new core for the American organization.
NEW ZEUS – Counter-Strike 2: Innovations
Interz will lead a new C9 roster into BLAST Premier Fall Groups, according to a June 8 report from Dust2.us, with Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov and Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko also linked to the roster. They join Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov and Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov, the only remaining players from last season's C9 roster implosion.
C9 formed what many saw as the next Counter-Strike superteam in July 2023 with NAVI's Denis "electronic" Sharipov and Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy joining the squad, but what followed was a nine-month period of disappointment. C9 failed to live up to the lofty expectations of the CS2 community; aside from a top four finish at BLAST's Fall Final and the Thunderpick World Championship, the team was completely absent from the winners' podium, let alone the play-off stage.
After a quarterfinal appearance at the PGL Copenhagen Major and a missed chance at the finals at IEM Chengdu, the team as we knew it was done and dusted. Electronic was acquired by Virtus.pro in April, while Perfecto and Hobbit were benched, both of whom are currently still inactive.
