One of the most famous esports organizations in the world, Cloud9 has introduced its LCS and Challengers roster for the 2023 season. C9 decided not to make huge changes to its LCS roster, signing Diplex to mid lane position and parting ways with the legendary player Jensen. The Challengers roster on the other hand has been changed from top to bottom. FakeGod, Tomio, EMENES, Lost, and Zeyzal will form the new Cloud9 Challengers roster in 2023.

Image Credit | Cloud9

Cloud9 ready for the next season

Cloud9 holds a huge fan base in its hands as the organization is one of the oldest and most famous esports teams not only in North America but around the world. C9 won the “Esports Organization of the Year” prize at the Esports Awards in 2018. Cloud9’s most successful and famous team is surely League of Legends and every year they sign world-class players to conquer the region.

Last year, the organization had a perfect run at LCS 2022 Championship and won every playoff game to lift the title. Jensen surely had a great impact throughout their journey in 2022, even though they failed to achieve anything worthy at Worlds 2022. The Danish mid laner parted ways with the organization at the end of the year and Cloud9 announced its new mid laner ahead of 2023. Diplex will fill Jensen’s shoes in the mid lane, joining in from Team Vitality Academy.

“I spent a lot of time with the coaches and with the players, trying to figure out what they want to do for next year to improve. We had a situation where pretty much every player was happy with the performance of their teammates. Of course, there were things that we could improve on, but they really wanted to run it back again. The one change that we ended up doing was just mid lane.” Jack Ettienne said, CEO of Cloud9.

He also mentioned Diplex’s skills in melee champions and mechanics in general.

Cloud9 LCS 2023 Roster

• Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami
• Robert “Blaber” Huang
• Dimitri “Diplex” Ponomarev
• Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol
• Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen

Fudge, Blaber, Berserker, and Zven are going to stick with the team in the upcoming season. Diplex is the only new player. The German player recently parted ways with Team Vitality Academy in Europe. Filling the shoes of one of the best LoL players in NA might seem hard but it looks like C9 believes in the 19-year-old’s capabilities and he had also shown high-level performances before. Lastly, Mithy will be the head coach of the roster.

Image Credit | Cloud9

New Challengers Team

Cloud9 has also announced the new Challengers team. Most of these players are the future of LoL esports and their performance is crucial for the ecosystem. C9’s new roster consists of experience and eagerness blended together.

Cloud9 Challengers Roster

• Aaron “FakeGod” Lee
• Tomio “Tomio” Phanlith Chan
• Jang “EMENES” Min-soo
• Lawrence “Lost” Sze Yuy Hui
• Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam

FakeGod, Lost, and Zeyzal are the experienced players on the roster as they had already played in the LCS before. The South Korean mid laner, EMENES, played for SK Gaming before but he was then demoted to the academy roster and now he has his second chance to show his capabilities. Tomio never had LCS or LEC experience before and he is also the youngest of the new lineup.

The LCS free agency roster shuffle continues as most of the other teams are rebuilding their rosters for the upcoming season. C9 on the other hand will stick with four of its players and we will need to wait and see how the mid lane change will affect others’ performance. Their performance will surely affect the 2023 LCS power rankings.