After only three months and a small handful of tournaments since the unveiling of the new international Cloud9 CS:GO roster known as the Colossus, general manager Henry Greer has already altered the direction of the new project. The primary AWPer for Cloud9, woxic, has been released in favor of North American rifler Xeppaa, fresh off of his recent impressive string of performances with the splitting Chaos Esports Club.
HenryG is wasting no time in making quick changes to the Colossus’ composition. (Photo courtesy Chaos Esports and Cloud9)
This news was first reported by CS:GO site RushBMedia, who said that woxic was removed from the starting roster due to “non-performance” related issues. The report also stated that the primary AWPing duties would not transfer to the new addition Xeppaa, but to the IGL ALEX.
The Cloud9 Colossus stumbled as it first tried to get its footing, losing 2-0 to both Virtus.Pro and OG en route to a quick and speedy exit at their first event, Flashpoint Season 2. However, they would gain some momentum at the BLAST Fall Showdown with a 2-0 win over Ninjas in Pyjamas, and a victory over the inspiration for their Colossus name and composition, Complexity. They were one series win against mousesports away from advancing to the Fall Finals.
As mentioned in the report, the reason for woxic’s release was not performance-based. While woxic struggled against his former team in mousesports, and against teams like forZe and Gambit, he’s been good overall since joining C9, and great even in series against ENCE and Team Spirit. Woxic was announced as the third member of the Colossus in September, as part of a three-year deal worth $1.6 million.
Xeppaa joins Cloud9 after over half a year with Chaos EC. As a rifler with Chaos, Xeppaa had a breakout year against North American competition, compiling a 1.18 HLTV player rating since May. He helped Chaos win roughly two-thirds of their maps during his time with them, earned a player rating of at least 1.00 in over 73% of his maps played, and had a streak of 17 straight maps with at least a 1.00 ratings.
At only twenty years old, he’s coming off his best period of Counter-Strike so far, setting career highs in ratings while helping Chaos conquer North America in 2020 before the team goes their separate ways. Xeppaa and Chaos claimed victory at numerous NA events this year, punctuating it with their two biggest wins at DreamHack Winter and IEM Beijing. Unfortunately, Chaos couldn’t stay together due to the frailty of the current North American scene. His teammate leaf has also been rumored to join Cloud9, but on their VALORANT roster. vanity has announced his full-time transition to VALORANT, and there’s no telling yet where Jonji and MarKE will end up.
The newest iteration of the Colossus will make their debut at the IEM Katowice World Championship, where they’ll have the tough task of advancing through the Play-in stage. They will also compete at Flashpoint when it returns for Season 3.
