Cloud9 Unveils Its LoL Rosters For 2023

Cloud9 unveiled plans for its League of Legends division on Thursday, November 24, when the North American esports organization announced its 2023 rosters. And despite failing to deliver at LoL Worlds 2022, Cloud9 decided to run back most of its LCS roster next year.

On Thursday, Cloud9 released a short video in which the team’s CEO, Jack Etienne, broke down the plans for the future and all the major changes that are coming to Cloud9’s LoL divisions next year. As stated by the CEO, the entire team sat down to discuss the 2023 season and find ways to improve their showings in 2022.

In the end, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) roster decided that they were happy to continue with the same core, as most of the players were happy with the performances of their teammates. So instead of going for a major roster overhaul, Cloud9 decided to replace only one piece of its lineup ahead of the 2023 season.

“We had a situation where pretty much every player was happy with the performance of their teammates,” said Jack.

“Of course, there were things that we could improve on, but they really wanted to run it back again. The one change that we ended up doing was just mid lane.”

So instead of taking the same path, most other LCS teams took this offseason, Cloud9 decided to replace only their mid lane. This sees Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen leave the organization after just six months with the team, as the 27-year-old finds himself without a home once again.

To fill in the void, Cloud9 decided to sign Team Vitality academy mid laner Dimitri “Diplex” Ponomarev, who recently played in the LFL and will be making his LCS debut in 2023.

Besides signing a new mid laner, Cloud9 also re-signed coach Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez, who’ll return to Cloud9 after one split with 100 Thieves. Meanwhile, former head coach Max Waldo will take over the position of top lane positional coach.

Besides replacing a couple of pieces of its LCS roster, Cloud9 also opted to revamp its academy division. As revealed, Cloud9 Academy will enter the 2023 season with a completely new lineup, consisting of top laner Aaron “FakeGod” Lee, jungler Tomio “Tomio” Chan, mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo, ADC Lawrence “Lost” Hui, Tristan, and support Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam.

Besides replacing its roster, Cloud9 Academy appointed a new head coach, Seong “Reven” Sang-hyeon, who previously served as an assistant coach and translator in the Cloud9 LCS team. On the other hand, former C9 Academy coach Zixing “Tails” Jie got promoted to the main lineup as a coach.

The major roster overhaul of Cloud9 Academy follows a fairly successful season in the academy league. The team kicked off the 2022 season with a second-place finish in NA Academy 2022 Spring but couldn’t deliver in the LCS Proving Grounds 2022 Spring, where Cloud9 placed fifth-sixth.

In the summer split, Cloud9 again showed good form throughout the regular season, finishing the NA Academy 2022 Summer. And even though they failed to win the LCS Proving Grounds 2022 Summer, Cloud9 Academy still did enough to place third – their best placement since LCS Proving Grounds 2021 Spring (runners-up).

By keeping its LCS roster mostly intact and adding solid talent to the academy lineup, Cloud9 look set for another successful season as the North American esports organization looks to improve upon its results in 2022.

Notably, Cloud9 won the LCS 2022 Championship but couldn’t show up at LoL Worlds 2022, where they placed 15th-16th. But perhaps the addition of a new young mid laner will help the team do a bit more damage in November in the League’s 13th LoL World Championship.