In an official statement today made by Cloud9, the organization confirmed the move of René “Cajunb” Borg from OpTic Gaming onto the team’s CS:GO roster.
Cloud9's CS:GO team has signed René “Cajunb” Borg, formerly of OpTic Gaming. (Image courtesy of Cloud9)
The news comes after a number of reports that rumored Cloud9 was targeting two players from OpTic. Initially, it was thought C9 would go after Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Jakob “JUGi” Hansen. Attention was quickly drawn to Cajunb after he was removed from OpTic’s active roster to make room for Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen and Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen.
The open slot made vacant for Cajunb comes after a blindside departure by Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey. The 24-year old Frenchman spent a brief six months with the organization before citing “player power” as the deciding factor behind his departure.
As for the Danish rifler, his success on OpTic Gaming has been somewhat limited. That team managed second place at DreamHack Open Summer 2018, cs_summit 3 and the GG.Bet Shuffle. Despite a lackluster stint with OpTic, Cajunb joins Cloud9 with a wealth of experience in the professional CS circuit, having played under banners such as Team SoloMid, Astralis, Dignitas and North throughout his career.
Cajunb commented on his transfer to the organization: “When you join an organization like Cloud9 there will always be a lot of pressure and expectations. I will do my best together with my teammates to make sure we succeed and make the fans proud.”
On a broader scope, the never-ending game of roster musical chairs is a much larger problem for the North American organization. Losing French hopeful kioShiMa is a small hitch in comparison to the volume of players who have come and gone through the team in the last year alone.
Luckily, C9 can in the very least find some comfort within Timothy “autimatic” Ta and Will “RUSH” Wierzba who’ve both remained active in the roster for well over a year. With that, the duo who helped carry Cloud9 through their Boston Major win last year only seem to be getting sharper over time.
Unfortunately for Cajunb, his arrival hasn’t been the most celebrated by the highly agitated fan base hoping to see Cloud9 field the same roster for more than a few months. Every player pick-up at this point should be seen as a long-term investment, and right now, the general consensus seems to be mixed in this case.
Cloud9 will debut their newest lineup at BLAST Pro Series Miami next week on April 12 – the current roster will be as follows:
Timothy “autimatic” Ta
William “RUSH” Wierzba
Maikil “Golden” Selim
René “cajunb” Borg
Daniel “vice” Kim (trial)
Ronald “Rambo” Kim (coach)
