About 10 months ago, one of the most promising Counter-Strike rosters in history was built, when Cloud9 dropped a bombshell and announced the signings of electroNic and Perfecto from NAVI. The experienced duo was meant to partner with sh1ro and Ax1Le, two top-five-level players, and create a new Russian-speaking super team to compete with international squads like FaZe or Vitality.
Over the next couple of months, however, what was meant to be one of the top rosters in modern Counter-Strike, with the top players of the game, unraveled in front of our very eyes. Now, the last man standing is Ax1Le, around whom, together with Boombl4, Cloud9 will be rebuilt. But where do they go from here?
Image Credits: Cloud9
Talented Counter-Strike AWPer First Priority for Cloud9
The Counter-Strike community has been screaming for Cloud9 to get an AWPer ever since sh1ro decided to bench himself in late 2023. Fortunately for them, there’s never been a shortage of cracked Russian snipers so they have a large pool of players to choose from. Getting one of zorte, ArtFr0st, deko, or ICY (who’s from Kazakstan) is probably their best bet.
zorte has been playing quite well on BetBoom, although he’s not as good as he used to be in CS:GO. ArtFr0st was a massive reason for Spirit’s breakout into tier one and only got dropped from the team, because of sh1ro becoming available. deko might have the highest ceiling of the four, but he has a reputation for being toxic and not a great personality to be around. ICY is the youngest and most unproven of the four but has shown quite a lot in the most recent Major and RMR cycle.
Build Around Ax1Le
Ax1Le has had one of the biggest falloffs in Counter-Strike history. From being one of the best riflers in the world and a top-five player two years in a row to, more often than not occupying the bottom half of the scoreboard. Though he has been playing better in 2024, he’s still nowhere near the player he was, when Gambit made their way onto the scene and were virtually unbeatable.
Besides getting an AWPer, Cloud9’s second priority should be to make Ax1Le as comfortable as possible and do everything in their power to make him the scariest anchor in the world once again. To do that, C9 need to give him all his preferred positions and make sure that his new teammates don’t get in his way on the server.
Give Boombl4 Full Autonomy
While Boombl4 may be somewhat of a controversial figure within the Counter-Strike space, there’s no denying he’s a quality caller. It was under his leadership that s1mple finally won his first and only Major title, and Cloud9 made it to the top eight of the first CS2 Major without an AWPer, knowing electroNic was about to leave to Virtus.pro on top of that.
There aren’t many better or more accomplished IGLs than Boombl4 in CS2, so he should be the one guiding Cloud9 forward both on the server and when it comes to transfer moves, game planning, and playstyle philosophy.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login