The recent departure of two players overnight, with Abay “HObbit” Khassenov and Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy to C9’s inactive list barely a week after Denis “electroNic” Sharipov’s shock move to Virtus.pro has raised rumors of a disbandment of C9’s Counter-Strike.
However, Cloud9 chief executive Jack Etienne has denied all the rumors about a possible disbandment of the Counter-Strike 2 roster.
HObbit and Perfecto left C9 on Tuesday April 22, with the organization appreciating these efforts of the pair in a social media post on X. They were not the only ones who left the organization with the squad’s assistant coach Ivan “F_1N” Kochugov exiting. He oversaw the movement from former org Gambit Esports and also took charge C9’s academy.
C9’s roster is now left with captain Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov and Sergey “Ax1Le” Ryktorov, which leaves C9’s Eastern European project in jeopardy, although the organization CEO Etienne has slid away those rumors.
“We are in a full rebuilding process in collaboration with Ax1Le and Boombl4. We won’t be disbanding,” Etienne said.
Meanwhile, the duo of HObbit and Perfecto are available for transfer despite their presence on C9’s bench. It also brings an end to the superteam.
Unfortunately for the super team and the bits of brilliance, C9 couldn’t win a first-place trophy to the cabinet, and the squad finished among the top eight at the PGL Copenhagen Major, but despite appearing in multiple tier-one playoffs, the team never made the grand final.
Meanwhile, there is no pointer to who will join C9 to compete for them in the coming weeks, and with the roster moves, the organization has withdrawn from this week’s ESL Pro League Season 19. Their place has been taken by Copenhagen Major underdogs SAW, who received a last-minute invite, and C9’s next appearance is expected to be at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade on May 14.
