Cloud9 Blue Parts Ways With Vice
Published: Mar 17, 2021 - Last Updated: Aug 2, 2021
Cloud9 Blue have begun with the roster changes after a series of unsuccessful attempts to qualify for the ongoing Valorant Champions Tour. The organisation has just released Daniel “vice” Kim, who was one of the founding members of the team. They will retain a full 5-man roster, since poiz has been a 6th member for over a month, and will now fill the vacant spot from vice.
Vice moves on
Vice has been one of the original members of C9 over the last half-year, but has now decided to leave and become a free agent once again. Together with C9, he participated in a number of tournaments, including all three VCT Challengers qualifiers. While they didn’t manage to achieve any significant results and failed the recent qualifiers, they formed great friendships and had a good time together.
In a Twitter post, vice announced his departure and bid farewell to his former team:
“My time with C9 has come to an end. I’ll always cherish the times and connections with my former teammates and staff. Moving forward, I am now a free agent and still hungry to compete.”
As a free agent, vice is still hungry to compete, and we could expect a new Valorant team to pick him up any day now.
Can Cloud9 bounce back?
Cloud9 Blue has been in a steady decline over the past few months. They started the year on the wrong foot, and just couldn’t seem to find their balance. At one point, they had one of the best players in NA, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, who quit back in January to focus on content creation. However, he was recently signed by Sentinels and has been an absolute powerhouse in the current VCT Masters 1.
TenZ made it over to Sentinels by pure chance, after disaster struck and sinatraa was suspended due to abuse allegations. Even though the transfer occurred on short notice, and with barely any prior practice, Sentinels opened up the first match with an explosive 2-1 result against Luminosity, and would follow up with an even greater 2-0 result against 100 Thieves. Even though he’s technically on a loan, TenZ seems to be a perfect fit for Sentinels. There’s a very good possibility that this loan might turn into a more permanent agreement, in which case Cloud9 would lose TenZ for good.
Vice leaving is not a good sign either, especially considering he was the team’s leader. Cloud9 has a full roster, but if the synergy is not there it’s not going to help much. They might have to start from scratch and work their way back to the top. They have placed 2nd on the recent Nerd Street Gamers – 2021 Monthly March: Open Qualifier, so they are showing signs of recovery. It’s a long way ahead of them, but this is a good first step. If they take the recent series of events in their stride and learn from them, they could once again find themselves competing with the best of the best.
