Sources close to Cloud9 have informed Rush B Media that Cloud9 will be removing Özgür “woxic” Eker from their starting line-up due to non-performance related issues. One person close to the situation did not believe that there was an internal disagreement that took place which would cause the Turkish player to be placed on the bench. In his place, they will be signing Erick “Xeppaa” Bach. Xeppaa was first linked as a replacement in reports by HLTV and 1pv earlier this week.
Woxic was the third piece of Cloud9’s “colossus,” with Henry “HenryG” Grier announcing the Turkish AWPer’s 3 year contract on Twitter in the middle of September. With w0xic, Cloud9 saw lackluster results at the three large events they attended: Flashpoint 2, BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown, and Dreamhack Masters: Winter 2020 EU.
However, after adding Edgar “MarKE” Maldonado, Chaos were able to best Triumph to win IEM Beijing 2020: NA. They then continued their successes at Dreamhack Masters: Winter 2020 NA, defeating TeamOne in the grand finals to secure a second big event victory for the year. Shortly after this victory, Chaos announced that they would be disbanding, leaving Xeppaa & company in limbo. In the past 3 months, Xeppaa has been one of NA’s strongest performers, boasting a 1.17 HLTV rating and a 1.16 HLTV impact rating. According to our sources, Xeppaa will not be replacing woxic as the team’s primary AWPer. Instead, Cloud9’s in-game leader, Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, will be taking over that responsibility.
Rush B Media reached out to a representative from Cloud9 for comment, however no response was given by the time of publishing. We will update this article should Cloud9 respond to our request. With this change, Cloud9’s roster will be:
- Ricky “floppy” Kemery
- Alex “ALEX” McMeekin
- William “mezii” Merriman
- Patrick “es3tag” Hansen
- Erick “Xeppaa” Bach
- Özgür “woxic” Eker (Benched)
- Chris “Elmapuddy” Tebbit (Head Coach)
- Josh “m1cks” Micks (Assistant Coach)
