It may be difficult to imagine that Cloud9 has only been in the esports industry for a little more than a decade, given its enormous worldwide reach. This organization was founded in January 2013, then reconstituted several months later in May with the famous League of Legends lineup of Hai, Balls, Meteos, Sneaky, and LemonNation as members. Since then, Cloud9 has been a mainstay of the North American and worldwide League, winning four LCS splits, four sets of regional finals, and qualifying for every Worlds tournament except for the 2020 edition. Throughout their 17 LCS splits, they've only finished outside the top four times in their respective divisions.
In addition to League of Legends, C9's winning methods are not limited to that game. The company owns and manages the London Spitfire franchise in the Overwatch League, where they were crowned winners of the inaugural season one. For almost two years, its Korean Rainbow Six Siege roster was one of the most dominating in the Asia-Pacific area, according to the company. Additionally, C9 created one of the most memorable esports moments in history when their North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad became the first NA team to win a major, in front of a frenzied Boston crowd.
Cloud9 has withdrawn from competition in a number of these games, including CS:GO, Siege, Dota 2, and Rocket League, among others. Despite the fact that the number of titles in which they participate has decreased, they remain as competitive as ever in the games in which they are still involved. Some of the greatest players in Cloud9 across a variety of different esports are shown here.
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1. Robert “Blaber” Huang – League of Legends
The first game on this list was the one that gave Cloud9 its start. Given how loaded their current roster is, it's difficult to pick out the greatest player from among them. Zven rebounded from a disappointing TSM season to establish himself as the greatest AD carry in the LCS for three consecutive splits, and he and mid-laner Perkz are the only two players to have won both the EU and NA domestic championships. Fudge and Vulcan are two of the finest players available at the top and support positions, respectively, in the league. But you have to give it to Blaber, the electrifying jungler and two-time MVP from the North American region.
Blaber joined Cloud9 as a replacement on the Academy roster in late 2017, when his future colleagues Zven and Perks were competing at the top of the EU LCS and at Worlds. C9 didn't even give him a chance to play in the Academy League's Spring split, but he dominated everyone in the summer, leading them to promote him to the main squad for the Summer 2018 split. He was named Rookie of the Split and would continue to split Jungler responsibilities with Svenskeren until the end of 2019.
Finally, in 2020, C9 appointed Blaber to a permanent position, and he and the team went on to dominate the 2020 Spring split. Additionally, C9 only lost one game against TSM during the regular season, swept the All-Pro first team, and dropped just one game to EG during the playoffs. Blaber was named MVP of the squad. Over the course of the following three seasons, he would receive two more first-team All-Pro selections as well as another MVP honor. He and C9 will now go to Worlds 2021, where he will serve as the permanent Jungler for the first time.
2. Joseph “Mango” Marquez – Super Smash Bros. Melee
Mango is one of the best Melee players of all time and is often regarded as the greatest of all time. He is also one of the "Five Gods" who, together with Armada, Hungrybox, Mew2King, and PPMD, form the Mount Rushmore of Melee.
Mango has been winning Melee tournaments for more than a decade already, and he joined the Cloud9 roster in 2014. With 50 sets and over 200 games between two players regarded to be the ultimate greatest, his rivalry with Armada is legendary, since they are the only two players to ever win the Melee bracket at EVO twice in their respective eras. He's also taken home wins at MLG Anaheim and four separate tournaments at The Big House, in addition to a slew of other smaller tournaments.
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It seems that his golden days aren't over yet, since he just won another major trophy at the Smash Summit 11 tournament in July 2021. He'd competed in all 11 Summits, placing in the top four in more than half of them, but it was in the grand finale that he eventually claimed victory against Golden Guardians' Zain that he achieved his greatest triumph. There's no question about it: he's the ManGOAT.
3. Anthony “vanity” Malaspina – VALORANT
Although it has only been a little more than a month since Cloud9 acquired him, the team is banking on vanity's IGL skills to be a major differentiator for their C9 Blue VALORANT lineup. By recruiting vanity, C9 has essentially reunited him with his old colleagues from the Chaos Esports Club CS:GO squad, Xeppaa, and leaf, something that all three players had indicated a desire in doing since departing for VALORANT in the summer of 2017.
If we go back to the days of Chaos, the CS:GO squad had a fantastic 2020 campaign with vanity at the helm, which culminated in victories at IEM Beijing NA and DreamHack Masters Winter NA, among other achievements. Despite their success, Chaos and vanity parted ways with the roster, with the latter joining VALORANT. Vanity propelled the Version1 lineup to a place at Masters Two Reykjavik less than three months after making the move, where they shocked Team Liquid before placing fifth/sixth with a stand-in.
Cloud9 Blue and vanity, now that they've reunited with their previous teammates, have their eyes set on the NA Last Chance Qualifier, a ten-team event that includes his former squad in Version1, with just a single place at Champions up for grabs.
4. Jasmie “Jazzyk1ns” Manankil – VALORANT
In contrast to the men's Cloud9 Blue squad, the women's Cloud9 White roster has already established itself as the dominant team in North America. After dominating the competition in the FTW Summer Showdown with a flawless run, the MAJKL roster was acquired by Cloud9 in October 2020 and put on the map. In the inaugural VCT Game Changers tournament, they performed flawlessly once again, bodying every team in both the open qualifier and the main event without losing a single map. They repeated as winners at Game Changers Two, only dropping a single map against Shopify Rebellion in the open qualification to secure their second championship.
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Even though Jazzyk1ns played a more supporting role in the team's Game Changers One win, he still ended in the top tier of players in the ACS and KD categories. Because of this, Jazzyk1ns was promoted to the starting duelist position permanently, and she even added Sage to her agent lineup, allowing her to put on another stellar performance at Game Changers Two, which she won. Her performance there helped the Game Changers to their second consecutive victory, as she ended in the top five in the ACS, KD, and first kills per round.
Despite the fact that the team's track record in open qualification events does not yet include any notable victories or very deep runs, the team claims that these events have given a significant boost to their performance at Game Changers tournaments. On September 30, Jazzyk1ns and Cloud9 White will attempt to complete the Game Changers hat trick in the next event, which will take place in Los Angeles.