Filling in the holes of their roster with the renmants of Team Impulse and Gravity, Cloud9 look to get back on top of the NA LCS.??
Confirming the rumored replacements, Cloud9 has announced that Lee "Rush" Yoonjae and Michael "Bunny FuFuu" Kurylo will round out their lineup for the upcoming 2016 NA LCS season. When Will "Meteos" Hartman suddenly left the team in the middle of the summer split last season, Hai "Hai" Lam was forced to step out of his retirement and take on a completely new role for the team than he had previously. Cloud9 managed to miraculously make it to Worlds, despite ending the split in 7th place. Many credited the return of Hai's shotcalling for the team's improbable run in the 2015 postseason.
With this move, Rush has officially taken over the starting jungler role, with Hai moving over into the support role to fill in for Daerek "LemonNation" Hart who announced his retirement this offseason. Claiming that Cloud9 fits his play-style more than Team SoloMid, which is where he was previously rumored to go, Rush brings to C9 a mechanically-gifted jungler who is known for making his presence known all over the map early and often. With his presence, he also bolsters and puts more team emphasis on the success of C9's mid laner Nicolaj "Incarnati0n" Jensen who joined the team last season.
Bunny FuFuu will join Cloud9 as a sub support and is expected to split playing time with Hai. He quotes the team's infrastructure and fanbase as incentives to join, despite not being guaranteed a starting spot on the team. Bunny FuFuu will be spending his time under the shotcalling tutelage of Hai while helping Hai learn support mechanics.
With these two talented players, Cloud9 has definitely made a solid move to bolster their roster for the upcoming season. However, as with any new roster, developing team syngergy and a positive team atmosphere will be key for Cloud9 if they hope to reaquire their titles as the undisputed kings of NA. This move also leaves the quickly shrinking teams of Team Impulse and Gravity with a bit of a dilemma, as both teams' positions in the NA LCS are still up on the open market with no announcements as to a sale quite yet.
