Shocking news comes upon the start of the new season of the Apex Legends Global Series as Cloud 9 announced the shocking release of its entire team roster. A staple of North American Apex Legends, Cloud 9 has become a household name in the scene. It came as a surprise when all three of Cloud 9’s players announced their free agency. However this isn’t the first organization in recent times to drop its Apex roster as competing organization Liquid did the same not too long ago.
Cloud 9’s roster release
Cloud 9 has been involved in Apex since the beginning in 2019 and the current Cloud 9 roster has become a familiar face in the competitive scene. It’s current squad was comprised of some of NA’s finest: Paris “StayNaughty” Gouzoulis, Zach “Zach” Mazer and Aidan “Rocker” Grodin. The group showcased a number of strong performances, so there was some surprise in their releases. Each of the players on the roster released a statement regarding their free agency below:
StayNaughty’s statementZach’s statementRocker’s statement
According to the statements, Cloud 9’s roster release was mainly due to economic troubles. Without it, the organization couldn’t support all of its teams. So alongside their Halo roster, the Apex roster was released. However, EA also shares some of the blame according to Zach’s statement. In his words, he explained that EA hadn’t provided enough support for teams and players.
Also EA doesn’t support the Esport at the level they need to and that effected it as well.
CLOUD 9 ZACH’S FREE AGENCY STATEMENT
The alleged EA situation
The surprising roster release of Cloud 9 did not come from its recent performances, but instead is allegedly due to a situation with EA. According to claims, a variety of both creator and team skins were in the works. There were skins for both Apex content creators like Lululuvley and teams like Cloud 9. With the skins, the creators or the teams involved would get a portion of the earnings. However, this wasn’t the case according to the claims. Allegedly, EA didn’t pay either party for the creator/team skins, nor credit them.
This isn’t the first team to step away from Apex Legends due to similar incidents. Another one of NA’s finest, Team Liquid’s Apex roster will become free agents later this month. Although this situation with EA is not confirmed as the reason that both teams are stepping down. Cloud 9’s CEO Jack Etienne explained that the company is focusing on Valorant, League of Legends, and CS:GO, which could be the reason for the roster release.
The future is unclear for the two rosters. Both teams are some of the best in the region. Knowing the caliber that the two teams play at, hopefully they both can find new homes soon. For more Esports content, stick around on Esports.gg.
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