Only Fudge and Blaber look certain for 2022
Rumors: Cloud9 Eye Korean-heavy Rebuild
Cloud9 is set to sign several South Korean players for a big rebuild for 2022. The team is likely to feature top laner Park “Summit” Woo-tae and support Kim "Winsome" Dong-keon, with rumors indicating they will also be joined by AD Carry AD carry Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol.
After a promising spring split, a controversial summer and a very exciting Worlds run where they once more reached quarterfinals, Cloud9 have had quite the year. As the transfers pick up, it looks to be getting even more eventful.
New rumors indicate that the organization has signed several Korean players. The first is former Liiv SANDBOX top laner Park “Summit” Woo-tae. Summit has been active in the LCK for several years, first on Afreeca Freecs and then on SANDBOX Gaming, which eventually rebranded to Liiv SANDBOX. A more interesting call is C9’s apparent decision to sign Kim “Winsome” Dong-keon, a 19-year old player who last played on amateur team Shadow Battlica. They join Robert "Blaber" Huang and Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami, who got their contracts extended. Despite being Korean and playing in the LCK, Winsome has US Citizenship, so he would not require an import slot. However, this does mean that Fudge's position in the top lane may be subject to change - and he and C9 owner Jack have already released a tweet about him going mid - naturally, as a "crazy rumor." Sure, we've seen a few of those come true before.
Also interesting are the latest rumors that the NA team is interested in signing T1 Challengers AD carry Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol. As a NA org, Cloud9 can only field two non-resident players at a time. They also still have the services of Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen, but new rumors indicate that the organization may prefer to use Berserker. As unlikely as it may be that Zven may be benched again, this may point towards the Dane being released despite being contracted until the end of 2023.
There are also questions about the situation with the support staff of the team. Their 2021 head coach Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodríguez appears to be heading towards 100 Thieves, according to Dot Esports. There are indications that both strategic coach Max Waldo and well-known analyst and current T1 streamer Nick “LS” De Cesare are considered for his role.
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