Cloud9’s RUSH Discusses the Future of the Team Following a Poor ECS Season 5 Finals Performance
Cloud9’s Will “RUSH” Wierzba has revealed the team are undecided on who will join the roster in place of the outgoing Pujan “FNS” Mehta, after a poor showing at ECS S5 finals.
C9 were eliminated early from the ECS Season 5 finals with an 0-2 group play performance, leaving the future of the roster uncertain, something RUSH himself has admitted to.
FNS had been the in-game leader during his time on the team, following the departure of Jake “Stewie2K” Yip to SK Gaming, but with Tarik “tarik” Celic moving back to IGL role, FNS seemingly no longer fits in.
The team didn’t look entirely dismantled as they faced Fnatic in a best of three, winning Train and only narrowly beaten on both Overpass and Cache, and their earlier best of one loss to Astralis was also a tight 13:16 defeat.
- More: The First Grand Finalist for the ECS Season 5 Finals Has Been Decided – NRG vs. Team Liquid Report
Regardless, the writing has been on the wall for this C9 roster, and with ESL One Cologne approaching in July, time is of the essence to solve their fifth player dilemma.
Speaking to Dot Esports in a post match conference, RUSH explained that nothing is for certain yet, but that the team have a number of names in mind, including non-North American players.
We’re considering players outside of NA. I can’t obviously say which ones, but I’m sure you guys know them. And these players are really experienced. We’re really weighing our options and we haven’t decided on a fifth yet. It’s still in the works, and we’ll kinda just play it by ear and see what we can get.
RUSH also gave a brief insight into the decision to part ways with FNS, saying that while it wasn’t necessarily a mutual decision, FNS would have expected the change.
The team vibe isn’t that bad [with FNS]. He’s a good guy and he’s easy to get along with, so he knows that there was no hard feelings. I’m sure he’s here to prove that he’s a good player, which he is.
But he’s been playing really well while not calling because Tarik is calling in our practices. It wasn’t really mutual. We kinda decided on it ourselves, but I think that he knew it kinda was coming because we weren’t playing that well obviously. It wasn’t like his calling was bad. He just wasn’t fitting in that well in terms of the style that he wanted to play and the style that he wanted to call.
Finally, RUSH explained that the team are searching for a ‘long-term’ solution, and not just another stand-in player.
We gotta get a player that we want that we’re 100 percent in on. We don’t want to half-ass it with a player we’re not sure on, and maybe get a new player or whatever. Whatever player we get, we want to make sure it’s a long-term thing that we’re gonna improve at a better rate than we have lately.
Source: Dot Esports