Myth and POACH Discuss Cloud9’s Aggressive Recruitment Strategy in Fortnite: “I think they’ve got some info”
Epic GamesTSM’s Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani and Team Liquid’s Jake ‘Poach’ Brumleve have discussed Cloud9’s aggressive recruitment strategy in Fortnite Battle Royale and what it could mean.
Whether you believe the battle royale genre works as an esport or not, Epic Games’ pledge to put at least $100 million into competitive Fortnite for the 2018-19 season means that it is impossible to ignore.
Most major esports organizations have now decided to invest in the massively popular game with professional Fortnite rosters or players, but few have made the level of commitment that Cloud9 has.
The North American organization currently boasts three Fortnite teams, Fortnite Blue, Fortnite White, and Fortnite Korea, as well having Jacob ‘Hysteria’ Reiser and Brody ‘Starke2K’ Wellmaker signed as solo pros.
Cloud9’s recruitment strategy has also caught the eyes of other community members; TSM’s Myth and Team Liquid’s POACH discussed the subject during a recent stream and POACH made it clear that he thinks Cloud9 has “got some info” and knows something that the rest of us don’t.
POACH believes that the organization is “betting on multiple teams being able to compete under the same org” and Myth responds by saying “they have an army, dude”.
Most esports do not allow multiple teams to compete under the same organization due to the obvious concerns about collusion or match fixing, but Cloud9 seems to be banking on Epic Games taking a more hands off approach to Fortnite.
A more cynical view of the situation would be to say that Cloud9 is snapping up the services of as many players as possible while they are not under contract and have no buyout price.
This does not only save money in the short term but also opens up the potential to sell player contracts for a massive profit when/if competitive Fortnite begins to blow up and the circuit is more established.