Just as Cloud9’s CS:GO team looked to finally find some stability, another change appears to be on the horizon.
This time though, it’s not a permanent change but rather a temporary one. As the American-European mixed roster heads into ECS Season 6 finals in Texas, in-game leader Maikil ‘Golden’ Kunda Selim looks set to miss the event, with coach Soham ‘valens’ Chowdhury stepping in.
The news came about when a message posted by Cloud9 rifler William ‘RUSH’ Wierzba in Faceit’s pro-league hub was screenshotted and posted to the Global Offensive subreddit.
“Mikey add valens he’s ready to que man,” reads RUSH’s post. “He’s our player for this event.”
There is no official word from either Cloud9, Faceit or Golden himself on his status, but with the IGL nowhere to be seen on the team’s media day photos, it looks as if he will miss out.
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Few more @Cloud9 behind the scene shots from @ecs media day :camera_with_flash: pic.twitter.com/NOsLBzcXdd
— C9 | Jonathan Tran @ ECS S6 Finals (@jonathanaktran) November 21, 2018
It’s not the first time that valens has stepped in for Golden. At the recent Blast Pro Series Copenhagen event, the former pro player played in place of the Swedish IGL for a day as Golden dealt with a medical issue.
At the Copenhagen event valens performed valianty in his two appearances, helping Cloud9 push Natus Vincere all the way despite falling to a 16-13 loss before turning around and defeating MIBR 16-13.
Despite only qualifying for the ECS finals on the back of Renegades not being able to participate, C9 would have been looking to play another lan event with their new roster after recent addition of French player Fabian ‘Kioshima’ Fiey.