Can Cloud9 find success again with a North American lineup?

After a rough start to 2019, Cloud9 traded all of its CS:GO players except Tim “autimatic” Ta three months ago.

The organization gave up on signing European players—a strategy used between 2018 and 2019—to return to their roots and field North American talent. Autimatic gave up the AWP for Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas, C9’s biggest signing after the captain Damian “daps” Steele. But the team is nowhere near the point of showing any signs of evolution yet.

They just finished in last place at the ESL Pro League North America season 10’s group last weekend. This means that C9 will have to play at the pre-relegation stage to maintain their spot in ESL Pro League for 2020.

C9 lost all three of their matches at the ESL Pro League against Complexity, eUnited, and Evil Geniuses. Although no one expected them to beat EG, one of the best teams in the world, C9 should have been at least more competitive against Complexity and eUnited, teams that made roster changes last month.

When C9’s new CS:GO lineup was announced, fans and specialists were expecting the team to perform much better under daps’ guidance. He’s one of the best North American in-game leaders and he’s known for developing the talent of young players like Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, who’s just 18 years old.

But instead of a consistent gameplan, C9 have been depending on individual talent and it’s rare to see at least two of their players step up in the same game. Every fan was excited to see autimatic returning to his old form when he was a tenacious rifler. At the ESL Pro League, however, autimatic finished with a 0.99 rating across eight maps—one of the worst ratings on the team.

Daps needs to figure out how to unleash autimatic and the best way to do it is to build a system around him. This C9 roster has the right players, at least on paper, to be the third-best North American team at the moment.

And that’s why C9 need to improve faster. They were the best North American team in early 2018. C9 won the ELEAGUE Boston Major in January 2018, becoming the first North American team to win a CS:GO Major.

Now, EG and Team Liquid are playing much better and part of C9’s fan base could start to cheer for those two teams instead. There’s also Complexity, who’s already showing signs of promise with a new lineup featuring Benjamin “blameF” Bremer.

C9 will have two weeks to prepare for their next LAN tournament at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, which will be played from Nov. 1 to 2.