The wait is finally over, as Cloud9 have announced their full roster for the upcoming 2023 VCT season. The announcement comes to us via a video that was posted on the Cloud9 Valorant Twitter page at 1pm PST.
Old and new faces feature in the Cloud9 Valorant roster
Rostermania following the conclusion of the 2022 VCT season has been ripe with rumors. With the biggest of them pertaining to this new Cloud9 roster. It is a roster full of old and new faces who are sure to excite the Cloud9 fans. Cloud9 IGL Anthony “Vanity” Malaspina returns for his third season in the roster, alongside Nathan “Leaf” Orf and Erick “Xeppa” Bach. Which provides the team with a solid foundation heading into the new season.
But them being re-signed to the team was but an appetizer to the main course of the announcement video. For it was later in the video where it was confirmed at last that OpTic Gaming’s superstar duelist Jaccob “Yay” Whiteaker would be joining the roster, whilst heralding the return of former Cloud9 CS:GO player Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro to the organization where he made a name for himself in the world of FPS esports. Former The Guard coach Matthew “mCe” Elmore has also been confirmed to be joining the roster.
Could Yay and Zellsis be the catalysts for Cloud9 Valorant success?
Yay is widely considered to be the best player in Valorant right now, and he more than lived up to that reputation as result of his highly impressive mechanical skills during matches. He always seemed to be in the right position at the right time across all maps and proved to be a true “LANimal” for his side at events. His individual prowess proved to be a key component in OpTic Gaming’s success last season. A year in which the NA side won Masters 1 in Reykjavik, a third place finish at Masters 2 in Copenhagen and second place at Valorant Champions 2022 in Istanbul.
Will Yay be able to pull off clips like this with Cloud9 this season (Clip by ValoWTF)
The second new face of sorts to the Cloud9 roster comes in the form of Zellsis. The former Version1 player briefly featured for Cloud9’s CS:GO team back between 2018-19. He has proven to be a solid foundation for his teams in the past with his strong mechanical skills, as well as his overall decision making in key moments. A solid Initiator player, his Kay/O play in particular should prove to be a key component in Cloud9’s gameplan going into the season.
Cloud9, and their fans, will be eagerly hoping that Yay and Zellsis can bring that winning mentality to their roster. And they will have quite a bit of help in the form of former The Guard coach mCe. Who links up with his old Chaos Gaming Club CS:GO players Vanity, Leaf, and Xepa. A grouping which saw quite a lot of success during their time together. Though Cloud9 fell short of expectations in the 2022 season, it now seems more than likely that they will be able to rise to the challenge in 2023.
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