It's hard to think Cloud9 has only been in esports for less than a decade, despite its enormous worldwide reach. It was founded in January 2013, and it reassembled in May with the famous League of Legends lineup of Hai, Balls, Meteos, Sneaky, and LemonNation. Since then, Cloud9 has dominated the North American and worldwide League, winning four LCS splits, four sets of regional finals, and qualifying for every Worlds until 2020. They've only finished outside the top four in four of the 17 LCS splits they've participated in.
C9's winning streak isn't limited to League of Legends. The company owns and manages the London Spitfire franchise in the Overwatch League, where they won the first season's championship. For almost two years, their Korean Rainbow Six Siege squad was one of the most dominating in the APAC area. In front of a euphoric audience in Boston, C9's North American CS:GO squad became the first NA team to win a major.
CS:GO, Siege, Dota 2, and Rocket League were among the games in which Cloud9 no longer competed. However, 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 active. Here are some of Cloud9 players in a variety of esports.
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League of Legends' Robert "Blaber" Huang
This list starts with the game in which Cloud9 first appeared. Given how loaded their current squad is, determining the greatest player from it is difficult. Zven overcame a poor TSM season to become the top AD carry in the LCS for three consecutive splits, and he and mid-laner Perkz are the only two players to win both the EU and NA domestic championships. At the top and support positions, respectively, Fudge and Vulcan are two of the greatest. But you have to give it to NA's own Blaber, the electrifying jungler and two-time MVP.
Blaber joined Cloud9 as a replacement on the Academy roster in late 2017 when his future colleagues in Zven and Perks were battling atop the EU LCS and at Worlds. He didn't participate in the Academy League Spring split, but he dominated in the summer, leading C9 to promote him to the main squad for the Summer 2018 split. He was named Rookie of the Split and would split Jungler responsibilities with Svenskeren for the rest of the season.
Finally, in 2020, C9 granted Blaber a permanent position, and he and his squad conquered the Spring split. C9 only lost one game against TSM in the regular season, swept the All-Pro first team, and only dropped one game to EG in the playoffs, thanks to Blaber's MVP award. He'd win two more first-team All-Pro honors and another MVP award over the next three splits. For the first time, he and C9 will compete in Worlds 2021, with him as the permanent Jungler.
Super Smash Bros. Melee's Joseph "Mango" Marquez
Mango, along with Armada, Hungrybox, Mew2King, and PPMD, is one of the greatest Melee players of all time and is regarded by many to be the best. He is one of the "Five Gods" that make up the Mount Rushmore of Melee.
Mango has been winning Melee tournaments for more than a decade and joined Cloud9 in 2014. With 50 sets and over 200 games between them, his rivalry with Armada is legendary, since they are the only two players to ever win the Melee bracket at EVO twice. He's also won MLG Anaheim and four tournaments at The Big House, among a slew of additional wins at lesser tournaments.
His golden days aren't over, as he just won another major award at Smash Summit 11 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 finally triumphed against Golden Guardians' Zain. Without a question, he is the ManGOAT.
Malaspina, Anthony "vanity" – Valorant
It's barely been a month since Cloud9 hired him, but the company is counting on vanity's IGL skills to be a major differentiator for their C9 Blue VALORANT lineup. C9 has essentially reunited him with his old Chaos Esports Club CS:GO colleagues, Xeppaa and leaf, by bringing in vanity, something all three players had shown desire in doing since departing for VALORANT.
Back in the days of Chaos, the CS:GO squad had a fantastic 2020 season under vanity's leadership, winning IEM Beijing NA and DreamHack Masters Winter NA. Despite their success, Chaos and the roster parted ways, and vanity joined VALORANT. Vanity guided 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, again reunited with their old colleagues, have their eyes set on the NA Last Chance Qualifier, a ten-team event including his former Version1 squad with just one place at Champions up for grabs.
Jasmie “Jazzyk1ns” Manankil – VALORANT
The women's Cloud9 White team has already claimed VALORANT supremacy in North America, while the Cloud9 Blue roster is pursuing it. The MAJKL lineup was signed up by Cloud9 in October 2020 after dominating the competition at the FTW Summer Showdown with a flawless run. They repeated their flawless performance at the inaugural VCT Game Changers tournament, bodying every team in the open qualification and main event without losing a map. They repeated as winners at Game Changers Two, losing just one map in the open qualification against Shopify Rebellion.
In the team's Game Changers One triumph, Jazzyk1ns took a backseat role, although he still ended in the top tier of players in ACS and KD. After the team moved on from Keiti, Jazzyk1ns was re-instated as the starting duelist, with Sage reinstated to her agent lineup, along the route to another stellar performance at Game Changers Two. She was in the top five in ACS, KD, and first kills per round, helping the Game Changers win for the second time in a row.
While the team's record in open qualification tournaments does not include any notable victories or very long runs, the squad claims that these events have given them a huge boost in their Game Changers performances. At the next event, which starts in late September, Jazzyk1ns and Cloud9 White will try to complete the Game Changers three-peat.