Cloud9 has overhauled its CS:GO roster with the additions of former Natus Vincere’s stars electroNic and Perfecto today for the second part of the 2023 season and, most notably, for the release of CS2.
ElectroNic and Perfecto will take the spots of in-game leader Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov and rifler Timur “buster” Tulepov in C9’s starting lineup. This puts an end to nafany’s longtime stint with sh1ro and Ax1Le as he had been playing alongside them since the Gambit Youngster’s project in 2019.
Buster, on the other hand, had been playing for C9 since January 2023 when he replaced Timofey “interz” Yakushin. The Kazakh rifler didn’t have much time to prove his worth, but he helped them win the tier-two tournament Brazy Party in May and finish in second place at ESL Pro League season 17 in March. Most fans will remember, however, that C9 missed its first Major with this Russian lineup after the addition of buster.
ElectroNic and Perfecto have left NAVI after a legendary stint with the Ukrainian organization. They were a part of NAVI’s best period in CS:GO, which happened in 2021. In that year, NAVI won multiple tier-one tournaments such as BLAST Premier Global Final in January 2021, IEM Cologne in July 2021, ESL Pro League season 14 and the Intel Grand Slam in September 2021, and most importantly the PGL Stockholm Major in November 2021.
But 2022 and 2023 weren’t productive in terms of titles for NAVI. The toll of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 followed by the departure of Boombl4 in May 2022 had a major impact on NAVI’s project. ElectroNic became the in-game leader in June 2022 and only led NAVI to one tournament win, the BLAST Premier Spring Final in that same month.
In theory, electroNic will get to lead a team that is better than NAVI as sh1ro and Ax1Le were named the third-best and fourth-best players in the world in 2022 by HLTV. Perfecto, on the other hand, gets to play his supportive role and help four mechanically-gifted players shine.
The new C9 lineup will debut at IEM Cologne, which will run from July 25 to Aug. 6 and could be the first CS2 tournament or final tier-one tournament in CS:GO.
