Cloud9’s League of Legends team might have suffered an early exit from the 2023 World Championship, but they could already be cooking up something exciting for next year.
The longtime North American organization has reportedly signed a contract extension with AD carry phenom Berserker and signed superstar support Vulcan to a new deal, according to esports reporter Brieuc Seeger. This high-powered bottom lane would be joining the team’s supposed new mid laner Jojopyun, who is reportedly joining from Evil Geniuses.
These three players have all been considered among the best players in their respective roles in the region, with Jojopyun winning the Most Valuable Player award for this past Summer Split, Vulcan having won six All-Pro awards, and Berserker having won the MVP award this past spring. Jojopyun and Berserker would also represent one of the youngest—and most talented—cores of any LCS roster to date.
This past year, C9 was considered a powerhouse in North America, having only lost nine collective regular season games and winning the 2023 Spring Split with ease. Although they were stunned in the Summer Finals by NRG Esports, they were still one of the best rosters in the region by far as they headed to Worlds.
At Worlds, however, the team could not gather enough momentum through the Swiss stage, losing three of their four games against LNG Esports, T1, and Fnatic. The roster could only best MAD Lions, but the Spanish org has also been one of the worst performing teams at international events this past year.
After the swarm of reports, Cloud9 seems to be loading up for a massive offseason, which means that all of the other LCS organizations must begin preparing their own moves to keep up before they are left behind.
