While Cloud9 have been participating in VALORANT tournaments for a long time now with their lineup, they’ve only recently begun to see success. After second-place finishes at the Pulse Invitational and the PAX Arena VALORANT Invitational, we’re starting to see them lock up their roster. They officially announced Mitch"mitch" Semago as a member not too long ago, and today, they’ve announced the signing of Josh "shinobi" Abastado.
Shinobi comes from the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, where he’s played on some top teams such as CompLexity, eUnited, and Rogue. Shinobi participated in ESL Pro League seasons 3, 4, and 5 with each organization in that order, though his results were less than spectacular.
In VALORANT, shinobi has been playing with Cloud9 since closed beta, so his trajectory has followed much the same as the team’s. Initially, Cloud9 struggled against the top tier of North American competition, and shinobi took a lot of criticism from the community. But as Cloud9’s play has picked up recently, so has shinobi’s, and he’s become known as a very capable in-game leader.
Shinobi plays many different agents, including Sova, Sage, and Breach, and as mentioned, functions as Cloud9’s in-game leader. He plays as a classic IGL - he is not incredibly flashy, nor will he top frag. But he gets the kills when he needs to, and focuses on having his team make good plays.
Cloud9 have been confirmed to be participating in the upcoming FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational. With more and more of their roster locked down, perhaps we’ll see even more success out of this currently red-hot team.
Cloud9 are now:
Tyson "TenZ" Ngo Skyler "Relyks" Weaver Mitch "mitch" Semago Josh "shinobi" Abastado
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