Cloud9 is set to remove its support CS:GO player Timofey “interz” Yakushin, according to recent reports following their elimination in the IEM Rio Major quarterfinals in November. Overall, the community seems divided about this roster change, but caster Mohan “launders” Govindasamy is completely against it.
For launders, C9 showed resilience during IEM Rio Major after pulling off more comebacks than any other team. They could easily have lost to FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere in the Legends Stage, but instead, they recovered during these matches and moved on to also beat Heroic before the playoffs. What was looking like a championship run, ended with an underwhelming performance versus MOUZ and resulted in elimination.
“They’re trying to scapegoat interz,” launders said. “The person responsible for this roster move is the person that couldn’t get them through that quarterfinal versus MOUZ. Ax1Le, Hobbit, and sh1ro are the strongest core in the game right now. Then there’s nafany who can frag, but nafany could frag well but still lose games as an IGL. I don’t think anyone is easy to replace in this team—in fact, I don’t think they should make a move at all. I think they should just try to get better. What happened to that?”
Should the removal of interz be confirmed, the team would make its first change since the addition of Hobbit in July 2020, when the squad was still playing as Gambit Youngsters. Interz has been playing in this team since April 2019 and has averaged a 0.99 rating in 2022, according to HLTV.
Interz is C9’s lowest-fragging player, but he also plays some of the most difficult positions in each map and generally helps set up the star players for success. Removing interz for someone who can get more kills might improve C9’s results in the short run while affecting their chemistry in the long run if someone else isn’t willing to play as support.
The players C9 is considering for interz’s spot are Entropiq’s Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy and the benched duo of Virtus Pro Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev and Timur “buster” Tulepov.
C9 won’t play at the BLAST Premier World Final this month. This leaves plenty of time for the organization to plan its CS:GO roster for 2023.
