Stewie2K responds to Cloud9’s Jack Etienne claim that he “abandoned” CS:GO team

MiBR player Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip has responded to comments made by Cloud9 founder and CEO Jack Etienne, suggesting Stewie and teammate Tarik ‘tarik’ Celic had “abandoned” the Major winning CS:GO roster.

After historic success at the ELEAGUE Boston Major in February 2018, where Cloud9 became the first North American team to win a CS:GO major, things quickly began to go downhill.

Stewie2K’s move to SK Gaming was the first domino, and he was later followed by former C9 teammate tarik, after the SK roster was acquired by Made in Brazil (MiBR).

Jack Etienne (left) celebrates Cloud9’s historic major win. Image: ELEAGUE

After taking months off for personal reasons, the ELEAGUE Boston MVP Tyler ‘Skadoodle’ Latham announced his retirement from competing, leaving only two members – Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta and Will ‘RUSH’ Weirzba – from the major winning lineup.

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Following the official signing of French veteran Fabien ‘KioShiMa’ Fiey on November 17, Cloud9 became a predominantly European roster for the first time, with Swedish duo Maikil ‘Golden’ Selim and Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist having already joined from Fnatic.

The transition to an EU team disappointed some NA fans, and their disappointment was perhaps confounded by news that coach Soham ‘valens’ Chowdhury would be stepping in for Golden at the ongoing ECS Season 6 finals.

A concerned fan sent a message to Etienne on Twitter, laying blame at his feet for the team’s struggles, specifically the loss of tarik and Stewie2K, to which the C9 founder responded “You do know they abandoned us because they wanted to right?”

Stewie2K saw the interaction and the accusation of abandonment, and disputed the use of the word to describe his departure.

“Cmon Jack, we both know abandonment is not the right term” he writes, hinting that there is perhaps more to the story than is public knowledge, but that Etienne would of course know the bigger picture.

Stewie’s teammate tarik didn’t respond, although he left Cloud9 some months after Stewie2K, so it is possible that the circumstances surrounding his departure were different. 

At the time, tarik said of his decision to leave C9: “The sole reason I want to make this change is simple… I want to win, and I will do anything in my power to make that happen.”

Regardless, Etienne remains confident that Cloud9 CS:GO can “rebuild”, although with valens stepping in for the ECS Season 6 finals, they are not best equipped to do so currently.