We've known about C9's offseason moves for awhile. Today, however, the team etched their new lineup in stone.
Cloud 9 has officially announced the starting roster for the 2016 North American LCS Summer Split. The roster is as follows:
Jeong "Impact" Yeong-eon
Will "Meteos" Hartman
Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen
Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi
Michael "Bunny FuFuu" Kurylo
Though these moves were far from a surprise (announced last month), they still provide reasons for both excitement and concern.
Simply based off the eye test, Impact had his worst professional split ever in the spring. His kill participation and KDA were among the lowest in the league, ironically close to An "Balls" Le, who is now heading up the north side of the rift for C9's new NA Challenger squad. To make room for Impact on the roster per the two import limit rule, Cloud 9 made the decision to send Lee "Rush" Yoon-jae down to the minors (so to speak) to help boost the challenger squad into the LCS.
As they are essentially trading off one of the best junglers for a top laner who has proven to be weak when not helped, one must question the strategy of Cloud 9. Instead of sending a top-tier jungler down to NACS, Cloud 9 could have kept their strong roster intact while sending down a roster consisting of Impact, Meteos, an import mid laner, Johnny "Altec" Ru, and Daerek "Lemonnation" Hart, which would have easily stomped the scene.
That said, of course, this roster is still formidable. Meteos has been staying on top of the metagame in soloQ as diligently as ever, and Impact should have much more help than he did on his former roster. With a year under his belt, Bunny FuFuu is primed to breakout, but conversely could continue to demonstrate a lack of shotcalling ability to augment his stellar mechanical play.
It's hard to tell where Cloud 9's motivations are for these roster changes, and even more difficult to know if the main roster will be effective. I don't think this roster is nearly as strong as the last, but perhaps a change of scenery is all Meteos needs to revert back to form. With a different roster, C9's biggest transformation in franchise history, they look to make a push for a worlds berth after falling early in the NA playoffs.
