Cloud9 bans players from Fortnite

We all know the feeling of finishing up at work, getting home and wanting to kick back and unwind. Whether you’re a brain surgeon or taxi driver, writer or esports player, every job takes both a mental and physical strain that you need to escape in your own time. But what if your boss dictated not only what you did at work, but also what you can do in your free time? This sounds obscured, but for the players of one of the top CSGO teams, Cloud9, this has become a reality.

Formed in 2014, Cloud9 are one of the most successful America CSGO organisations in history, being the only American team to win a Major. At the Boston ELEAGUE Major in early 2018 they defeated FaZe in the Grand Finals and in 2017 they beat Renegades, BIG and Immortals in 3 separate, smaller tournaments, taking home first place in each. Unfortunately, since that historic underdog victory in 2018 they’ve imploded, claiming no victories of note.

Following their post-Major losing streak one of their key players on the Cloud9 roster, Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip, left to join SK Gaming and their longest standing member “Skadoodle” also announced he’s considering taking a break. With these rosters changes, increased losses and reported internal team struggles, Cloud9 are having a very tough time of it.

CS:GO or GTFO

Malik ‘Golden’ Selim, the former in-game leader of Fnatic, has been brought into the Cloud9 organisation in an attempt to bring the team closer together and redeem their glory days. Since starting with the team he has began imposing a number of internal changes to achieve this. One of the ways he has turned things around has received a lot of press and community attention, and relates to what people are doing when they aren’t playing CSGO.

As you can see from the above clip, Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta is speaking with his old teammate Shroud, who left C9 in late-2017, about new rules being enforced. With this new rule imposed by Golden, none of the Cloud9 CSGO roster are allowed to play any other PC games. It’s CSGO or nothing.

This has arisen because of Cloud9’s recent poor performance and lack of internal motivation, with players seen on Twitch playing more Fortnite that CSGO. Autimatic has admitted that he no longer looks forward to playing CSGO and this has set alarm bells ringing for C9 fans around the world, fearing more of their favourite players will abandon ship soon.

It’s not just CSGO commenting on the drama

Although this all stemmed from the Cloud9 CSGO team, this debate has spread across teams and esports platforms. Players ranging from amateur to pro have been chiming in with their 2 cents. Full-time League of Legends streamer IWillDominate has always been an outspoken member of the streaming community, and has recently tweeted his views:

This tweet fires at the NA teams currently competing in Worlds 2018, who have been having rough time and are likely soon to be put out. Although, not naming any specific names, he has found that one of the NA players has 186 matches of fortnite played the WEEK leading up to their Worlds performance. With this lack of motivation and determination to hone their craft, especially on the lead up to the largest League of Legends tournament on the calendar, is it any surprise that they’re losing to other teams?

Potential for player burnout

What may seem like a fairly unfair and draconian rule may actually do more harm that good, especially for a team that is self-admittedly not enjoying the game and burnt out. Fans may not realise that their favourite players need time to switch off, breaking away from the game they’re known for playing. These late-night Fortnite sessions may act as relief to the players to allow them to focus better, but as IWillDomainate rightly mentions, if this becomes excessive then it causes players to lose their micro, forget muscle memory, miss out on more clean strategy synergy and essential give a subpar performance.

Whichever way you look at it there are benefits and downsides and we’re interested to see how the wider community reacts. If you have an opinion then be sure to let us know in the comments below or on our Twitter channel.