Cloud9 has responded with an official statement regarding the drama surrounding the team recently.
Both Jack Etienne and Cloud9 have come out with an official statement in regards to the sudden release of Nick “LS” De Cesare from the League of Legends head coach position. Just minutes before their match against Counter Logic Gaming over the weekend, C9 announced that LS was being removed from the head coach position for the LoL team followed by his release thereafter. In the video, Jack is spotted with the new head coach, Maxwell "Max Waldo" Alexander Waldo as well as the team's toplaner, Park "Summit" Woo-tae and their star jungler, Robert "Blaber" Huang. Jack goes on to say:
The reason why we got to the point we were with LS was that Cloud9, for years, has developed systems on how we like to coach and operate our team. And despite our best efforts, working with LS to try to come to terms and see eye-to-eye on how that should work, we were unable to make that actually happen.
He then goes on to note that everyone, which includes the players, staff, and management knew that there were growing frustrations and issues surrounding the team and it was in everyone's best efforts to try and resolve that over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, it became clear soon after that there was no resolution in sight with the team unable to come together to solve the many issues they were facing.
LS was brought in just two months ago during the off-season after a relatively decent performance for C9, given everything they have been through the past few years. The team claimed last year's Spring Split followed by a fifth-place finish at the Mid-Season Invitational. They soon ended their regular season run by finishing third in the Spring Split and soon after, finished their Worlds campaign in eighth place. By bringing in LS, C9 was looking to be the LCS' dominant force once more, and it showed for a little while.
C9 were 3-1 before LS' release with the former head coach taking charge of only four official games. They managed to take down the likes of Evil Geniuses, Golden Guardians, and Immortals but were unable to overcome Team Liquid. Max Waldo is currently 1-1 in the LCS, losing against CLG, which in all fairness, was sort of to be expected given the sudden departure of LS just minutes before the match. He did, however, bring the team back with a win over TSM.
With five weeks of games to go, C9 currently sit top alongside four other teams that include Dignitas, Team Liquid, FlyQuest, and 100 Thieves. C9's next three games this week will be do-or-die as they will face up against three of the other top-placed teams in the form of Dignitas, 100 Thieves, and FlyQuest.
