The Cloud 9 banner will fly once again at The International as the NA organization picks up the Entity roster.
In April of 2020 Cloud 9 announced their departure from Dota 2. The on-and-off NA organization had a colorful history in the scene, marked by ups and downs, wins and losses. Their departure was just another signal of the decline of the NA Dota 2 ecosystem. It isn't uncommon for organizations to come and go … and come again…. but that was four years ago. And not many expected to see their return.
But here we are.
The blue and white colors of the Cloud 9 organization will once again be on display at The International. And the players wearing them will be none other than those who were just competing under the Entity banner merely days ago at Riyadh Masters where they took a 9-12th place finish.
Eight months ago what looked like an Eastern European line-up, Entity entered the new competitive season with Volodymyr "No[o]ne-" Minenko and Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin taking on the empty slots left by Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau and Kim "Gabbi" Santos departure from the mid and offlane respectively.
They had improved success and eventually took a spot at Riyadh Masters and then took down Tundra Esports in the Western European qualifiers for The International 2024 to claim the first of the two tickets to Denmark.
Cloud 9's last appearance at The International was in 2017 when they clinched a 13-16th place finish with Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao, Adrian "Fata" Trinks, and Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling.
Cloud9 roster
Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov
Volodymyr “No[o]ne” Minenko
Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin
Vladislav “Kataomi`” Semenov
Dzmitry “Fishman” Palishchuk