xeta and Autumn join T1, curry swaps to Cloud9

South Koreans Son "xeta" Seon-ho and Yoon "Autumn" Eu-ddeum have unexpectedly been transferred from Cloud9 to T1, while Rahul "curry" Nemani has gone the other way, the two organizations revealed today.

The move was a surprise not only for the reason that Cloud9 had just played their first match at VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 2 - Main Event against Evil Geniuses, which the former won 2-0. Prior to Stage 2, the Anthony "vanity" Malaspina-led team had performed admirably at VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event, but ended up finishing in 3rd, which meant they missed out on VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík.

Autumn and xeta were some of the longest standing members of the lineup, having joined in January 2021 from Cloud9 Korea. The team had middling results until the addition of in-game leader vanity, under whom the team went on to win VCT 2021 - North America Last Chance Qualifier and qualified for VCT 2021 - VALORANT Champions 2021, where they finished 5th-8th. Few could argue that Cloud9 were one of the best teams in North America and were capable of beating any opposition on their day.

xeta himself had proven to be a top-tier initiator in the region, specializing on Sova but also having played Breach, Skye, and other flex agents. He holds a 1.06 rating and 201 ACS over his career, making him a very good pickup for the likes of T1.

T1 on the other hand have lost the services of curry to Cloud9. The American has also been a part of the T1 camp for over a year, having been signed in February last year. The organization haven’t had nearly as much success as their counterparts, with their best performances coming at VCT 2021 - Stage 3 - North America - Challengers 2 and VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - North America - Challengers 2, where they placed 5th-6th and 7th-8th respectively.

It will certainly be an upwards move for curry, who has performed very well throughout his VALORANT career with a 1.13 rating and 220 ACS. He fits xeta’s initiator role like for like, but is known for playing a larger variety of agents, including Skye and KAY/O; however, he does not play Sova nearly as much as xeta did. It will be interesting to see how Cloud9 adapts to a different style of initiator player in a short period of time.

The organization is set to play their next Stage 2 Challengers match against the powerhouse OpTic Gaming the coming weekend and seemingly have a mammoth task ahead of them. T1, on the other hand, have plenty of time to integrate their two new additions considering they are not playing the ongoing Challengers event and the following VCT 2022 - Stage 2 - Masters Copenhagen.

Cloud 9 are now:

James "JamezIRL" Macaulay (Assistant Coach)

T1 are:

Yoon "Autumn" Eu-ddeum (Head Coach) Dakota "Stunner" MacLeod (Assistant Coach) Dallas "Branchies" Branch (Manager)