Cloud9 eliminated from SEA open qualifiers for ESL One Los Angeles Major

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Cloud9’s celebration after their anticipated return to the Dota 2 scene after two years has just been cut short.

The new roster, playing in the Southeast Asian region, has been eliminated from the open qualifiers for the ESL One Los Angeles Major by Motivade.Trust Gaming today.

Related: MISERY and pieliedie headline Cloud9’s new Dota 2 roster

C9 won just two games before running into the roadblock presented by MG.Trust. The Thai team, consisting almost entirely of pub stars save for Anurat “boombell” Praianun, a veteran support player in SEA, dispatched Cloud9 with relative ease.

C9 has been out of the Dota 2 scene since 2017. The team has had a long-running relationship with the controversial Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao, who made a name for himself as a skilled player that consistently manages to rack up a record of misplays due to his min-maxing nature.

The new roster consists of two C9 veterans in Rasmus “MISERY” Filipsen and Johan “pieliedie” Åström, filling up two slots with still-unproven SEA talent. This was likely the reason why they began their 2019-20 Dota Pro Circuit campaign in the SEA open qualifiers. Unfortunately for C9, the depth of the lower-tier scene in SEA proved to be too much of a hurdle for the new team to cross.

For now, C9 will have to take their head out of the clouds. The new roster will return to North America and will need to battle their way out of the open qualifiers again for the EPICENTER Major in May.