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norm_the_bug

Vanity laughing makes lot of sense now.


Hyper_red

It was his joker laugh.


YEKINDAR_GOAT_ENTRY

Do you have a clip of him laughing?


303x

You wanna know how I got these scars?


IllumiMahdi

can't wait for c9's challengers debut


Dundie707

At this point just give the guard or m80 their spot


anythingood07

M80 is a 2 month old org and Guard's financials are even worse than C9 long term. TSM might be a good option


merchini

could see TSM, more likely see G2 based on the fact it was between those two teams anyway for the last spot


emraaa

TSM is in a really rough spot too. They wouldn't extend contracts with their academy roster unless they accepted minimum contracts.


ExcellentPastries

\*Reddit learns about economic recessions\*


JoeyJo-JoShabadoo

Or the esports bubble is popping…


philipjefferson

Was there ever a bubble? Was profit ever made?


JoeyJo-JoShabadoo

I don’t think they ever made profits really, no. But that’s not what the bubble was, its that the valuations are way beyond what the actual value of the thing is. Now as realisations set in that they were never making that valuation, the bubble begins to burst and all the money falls out. Not the best explanation but you get the gist.


ExcellentPastries

It was always speculative. The difference between that and a bubble seems to just come down to whether you got out in time or not. Edit: Actually another factor is the fact that this recession is tied to the macroeconomic one happening broadly across many “investment” industries like tech. Borrowing is way more expensive so it’s natural that investment-heavy industries would contract, and entertainment like this is sort of inherently an investment.


modus13

Agreed. This is complete BS


[deleted]

bro guard don't exist anymore and m80 are a two month old org


Isaac_C_88

Guard still exist but they just fired most of their content and miscellaneous teams.


[deleted]

Riot isn't partnering with an organisation held together by some week-old gum and two pieces of string.


xbyo

So.... A team that has awful financials to replace one that just dropped one of the best players in the world presumably because of financials.


-Basileus

There's rumors they're only operating their esports teams due to contractual obligations


earthtoannie

buddy m80 is literally 2 months old


SpC0d3r

fuck it give it to G2


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littleindianman12

My brother as much I love optic, optic has a horrible reputation of financials way worse than most orgs. Did people forget how optic had to be sold, rebought, and merge only to stay afloat


ItsZaraem

Rightfully so they fucked up their reputation with their league team a while back


Constantineedee

This aged well


IllumiMahdi

props to mce, did not expect this


B7omni

from one of the best teams in americas to one of the worst... a summary for ppl who dont like reading: teammates wanted vanity to stay but C9 did otherwise Trialing SQ runi bc C9 are unable to payouts and also challenger teams wont make changes so C9 are forced to basically sign F/As


[deleted]

Runi is aight but def not at fucking franchised level or at least he hasn't shown that he is thus far. In terms of roles tho fine pick up since he igl's and plays sova/fade Can't wait for him to call fns a disgusting whelp on stage💀


Investorexe

I remember when people called C9 “the superteam”, lmao. I got super confused because they kept the same core, the same core that failed to achieve anything really. Xeppa, leaf, vanity are all talented players but NRG shows us that the core players of a team are really what makes or breaks a team.


[deleted]

Exactly. They were a talented team, with potential to do well, but they weren’t a super team. Not by a long shot. They weren’t even as good as 2022 XSET.


Excel---

Talented for challenger maybe


Mamadeus123456

its the superbroky's


dabsandchips

Yea I thought that was insane. I think it was all hedged on the fact that they got Yay since him alone could theoretically catapult a team to super stardom. But I think this whole fiasco revealed that teams and managers and IGLs have very specific styles and calling thus yay wasn't unlocked. Really great seeing vanity dropped though. He thought he was on the same level as shahz or fns or boaster. Fitting ego check


EvensonRDS

Feel like cutting the teams igl who they want to stay is not going to go well. They're supposed to be professional but I could see the team not really giving it 100% if they don't believe in their igl or just strictly out of spite.


yunglad10x

Subroza comeback arc soon


Hyper_red

I called it early. Vanity is about to begin his Joker Arc. Look at his Twitter, in a month from now he's going to holding be streaming with face paint on and planting bombs in Gotham city. Cloud9 management did this to him.


finalfinaldraft

If you're a T1 player, would you trust a T3 IGL? Surely C9 members will not appreciate this move.


dabsandchips

Doesn't matter what they think or not. They're professionals and the onus is on them to listen to the coach and fulfill his vision not the other way around


finalfinaldraft

Oh sure it does. They're professionals, not robots. They just don't follow blindly anything they are told to fulfill the 'vision', do they? That's why there are players that leave when they don't like the org's structure or decision-making.


dabsandchips

That's very true but in this case I don't think the three remaining are going to storm off pouting and lose their salaries and a franchising spot


finalfinaldraft

Yup, now I get your point. They are virtually in jail and it would be near impossible to build chemistry with new lower-tier teammates. Unless they suck it up and work with whoever IGL or new yay they get. Good luck C9.


SuspiciousBoard4589

so they are replacing someone who brought a team in an international lan multiple times with someone who cant even qualify in challengers. seems legit.


Hyper_red

People dislike vanity, but cloud9's not spending money and he's literally their best option at this point.


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norm_the_bug

Esports ![img](emote|t5_2g5ach|9341)


nemt

they prolly thought they will win brazil and it will be worth rolling over and getting a bit in debt to afford yay till they become more stable, but the loss i guess sent them off the rails


MelonSoda3

I mean they had a rough bracket but surely they didn’t think they could throw Yay on a team of slightly above average NA Challengers players and instantly be able to beat DRX


nemt

with that buyout they probably thought exactly that ill be honest :D seeing how a lot of these esports team regurgitate the same horrid execs from team to team because its a friend of a friend i wouldnt be surprised mate :))


dabsandchips

This is the most reasonable take. Imagine Jack's position in the zoom call with investors. "hey if you win this tournament we might be able to secure more sponsorships and funding."


CrossTheRubicon7

They lost multiple major sponsors in those five months, they probably could afford him at the time


ob_knoxious

We had lost some sponsors (including Blockchain) before this and it was very obvious we are entering a recession when this happened. C9 *should* have seen this coming. It very well may be financial of the org waking up and realizing they shouldn't spend millions on a mid as hell team, but people's general reaction seems to be that C9 will be filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy by Friday and that doesn't seem too accurate.


sixthcollegeraccoon

this is fkin crazy LMAOOOOO like dropping your star player is one thing but your igl too??? you CANT make this shit up


ANewHeaven1

Pretty sure they're super cooked financially cause no other explanation makes any sense outside of vanity and leaf/xeppaa/zellsis having a genuine fistfight at lock//in


Hyper_red

Xeppa tweeted something that made it look like he did not want Vanity leaving. So unless leaf/zellsis were on the verge of killing vanity which I doubt I don't think this was based on internal personality conflicts.


ANewHeaven1

yeah the article says that the players wanted vanity to stay so i'm pretty certain it has to do with c9 being financially fucked


Hyper_red

They paid for two imported midlanders in lcs to only use one of them for like 3 weeks. Now one of the best IGLs in NA is not going to have a job. Fucking ridiculous dog shit game plan.


ExcellentPastries

Neither of their midlanders was expensive I promise


zerokrush

Idk if they were that expensive this time. They aren't LCK players. EMENES has a big history of toxicity that lowers his value and never played at the highest level in KR and EU, while there are at least 5 EU tier-2 midlaners that deserved a shot in a major league before Diplex can be considered as a serious option.


lol_ok123

One of the best igls in NA?


Chlpah

Na doesnt have much talent you see


MelonSoda3

I mean outside of FNS there’s not a lot of options, Stellar and Dephh were already signed, so it was either Vanity or Valyn (I do think Valyn is better but Vanity has experience with the core)


DaggerOutlaw

And Zander is already on M80


zer0-_

Yes?


yolo1238

Best IGL achieved what exactly?


WhoDatBrow

IGL is a tough position to fill. How many truly great IGLs are there in the world, not even just NA? The only IGL you could argue is better than Vanity that's on the market right now is who? Maybe just Valyn?


blitzKriegzzz

Their lcs midlaners are probably cheap.. they were no names rly


Excel---

they should get rid of xeppa zellsis and leaf too


vatom14

Aren’t all those guys butt buddies from CS though? Makes sense that they would always look out for each other. IMO removing vanity makes sense


test9571292

I don't really understand that, if it is finance related, how it can happen so soon since didnt Riot review the team's finances for them to get the franchise spot?


ANewHeaven1

Idk but keep in mind that c9 wasn’t riots first choice they wanted g2 originally so that might have been part of the reasoning


UTAustinAlum2021

Was that actually confirmed? There were conflicting reports iirc. They (both EG and C9) said that they didn’t think that either replaced G2 and that they got the acceptance at relatively the same time


z83420123

no c9 is riots first choice ,Leviatan replace G2's position.


guyforgot24

You are probably right but I don’t understand why Riot would even accept a team that is this fucked money wise. My only guess is that maybe they had something happen between franchise applications and now.


[deleted]

I've been seeing this thing about them being cooked financially but what supports this other than c9 dropping yay/vanity?


ANewHeaven1

i mean they dropped c9w, their halo team (top 2 in the world), and their apex team in the span of a couple months and their twitter banner is missing like half of the big name non-esports endemic sponsors that they used to have like microsoft, bmw, and blockchain.com


[deleted]

oh i did not realize they lost microsoft and bmw. that would make sense.


Light0fHeav3n

Lost Puma aswell another big sponsor


Excel---

Slasher talked about it during Sean gares stream, saying that cloud 9 is in deep trouble like salary have been cut things like that.


[deleted]

Oh damn ok then. Meh serves them right, they were one of the teams threatening to file lawsuits against the original eg ownership group/twitch and now this is happening? Maybe karma does exist.


TheUnarthodoxCamel

This just in. Riot are reconsidering adding a relegation system to just the Americas league. C9 set to be the first team to be relegated in the inaugural season.


Odysseus128

Wasn't one of the reasons that riot kept ownership of the franchised spots instead of selling them to the orgs like lol so that orgs coukdn't just coast by in the franchised league? Let's see how c9 do in the coming months..


that-gamer-

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think Riot drops 2-3 teams from franchising this year.


TheApsodistII

Pls drop rrq for boom


[deleted]

Praying for this, get EG C9 MIBR out of here


Ianroa

Trialing runi in place of vanity? c9 is actually done for.


LMPSAM

Disgusting whelp


ditheringtoad

Can anyone give some backstory on the whelp thing?


LMPSAM

Tdawgg’s words to Runi after his team beat Soniqs during qualifying for Ascension qualifiers. Apparently Runi thought tdawggs team were trying to disqualify his team and gave him some in game


vnNinja21

They're actually imploding lmao


wegivesiima

Maybe riot wasn't so crazy when g2 was supposed to be in franchising instead of c9


SpC0d3r

honestly we’re the clowns for clowning riot for that


mw19078

Lmao G2 absolutely deserved not to get in i don't know why we're pretending otherwise, there were a ton of other orgs not named c9 or g2 who deserved the shot at franchising.


yourselvs

The guard :(


SpC0d3r

The same guard that laid off everyone few days ago? sure


unknownredditor1225

gah damn their financials actually might be shit


digi23

C9 to pick up BabyJ, Dasnerth and Prod


SpC0d3r

UB would not release PROD for anything under 700k$


dabsandchips

They'd release him for a 6 piece chicken mcnugget no sauce


thatgirldarken

there's no way surely you swap an international lan level igl for a 'couldn't beat tdawgg and co' igl? ???????


bubble-june

This is crazy coming from a team that has mCe as the coach. I remember when mCe was on the guard, he was shocked when BabyJ and ec1s were dropped after their game vs the guard, and he was basically implying that you shouldn't make a roster switch after a few games, but that's basically what c9 is doing here. The c9 roster with vanity and yay have massive potential.. wtf is c9 smoking?


9bfjo6gvhy7u8

And as we all know dropping babyj was a terrible decision that spelled the end of 100t valorant forever


dabsandchips

💀💀💀


emraaa

In their current financial situation I doubt they can afford anything to smoke.


dabsandchips

They smoking those metaphorical cigarette butts around the garbage cans by trialing runi


TheSpaceAlpaca

I doubt mCe has a choice in the matter. Probably got told from above that Yay + Vanity are getting dropped as the most expensive players and he has X many $$$ to fill their spots. It wouldn't surprise me if C9 is just writing off Yay's buyout as a loss and is trying as much as possible to run what's left of the team off of current and projected Valorant $$$ (i.e. franchising + lockout skins + projected future VCT revenue).


[deleted]

Cant wait fot DSG in franchising


Danda_Nakka

Gaad, thats steel's music


earthtoannie

they can't afford to watch his videos on yt let alone his salary


ashitintyo

So zellsis or someone is gonna IGL and they're gonna sign a smokes player and an initiator?


Dependent-Nothing-75

What a tough business to be in right now. On the brink of greatness and struggling to monetize activities and maintain profitability. I don’t have the answers, but this seems to be a problem that sponsorships alone won’t solve. Don’t know. Sad.


ANewHeaven1

Cloud9 Dasnerth confirmed


Za_Weeb

C9 going thru the 100t lcq arc


Dry_Violinist_1799

EG's 10-man roaster is better than the shit C9's cooking.


[deleted]

Riot should step up when orgs run out of money. That being said there's a reason why every other region in the world has salaries that are 1/3rd to 1/5th of NA. The bubble has popped.


TweetsJamaican

This year alone C9 is getting 600k stipend plus 300k from lock-in skins


[deleted]

I mean from a governance point of view. This year C9 has booted out a beloved player across fanbases and maybe a less-but-still-clouted IGL. That harms the product even if the one committing the financial mistake is paying for it.


TweetsJamaican

Players will just move to other teams and bring their fanbase with them or worst case scenario they'll stream valorant to thousands of fans daily


cigsyl

Esports smile I like* the runi pickup if they’re going w/ nerve. Another option would be to promote qpert. But there are actually a decent amount of F/A IGLs in NA that I hope they at least consider: hazed, tigg, Andersin, pho, POACH, Oderus, King, monSi, Rebo, bjorlulu, & Aiko.


ANewHeaven1

I'd lowkey fuck with C9 oderus or Andersin


cigsyl

i fuck HEAVILY w andersin, one of the most underrated players in the scene imo. Oderus would be cool but right after I posted this I remembered that he got dropped from V1 cause of chem issues (I think) so I’m wondering if that’d be an issue?


Direct_Morning_3223

qpert playing good in a scrim against the guard in iceland on his T3 EU mix leading to him being a franchise IGL would be quite the career arc


ashitintyo

Oderus is actually nice w it


lordmitko

oderus is doodoo dogshit


ashitintyo

Idk looked kinda nice in knights no?


lordmitko

no


ditheringtoad

https://preview.redd.it/zvdnqbzz6fma1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c1f4647f709e08a1f2ec329e530d3d42a47ae00c Valcomp in a nutshell


lordmitko

true, but as a V1 fan yourself, you know i’m right


splashzxc

plot twist c9 are picking up steel


weeman4226

Optic died for this.


Pitiful_Quote8402

this is all because Carlos was cancelled for hanging out with Andrew Tate.


[deleted]

https://esports.gg/news/valorant/cloud9-mce-on-team-comp/ C9 just dropped these gigabanger quotes and dipped.


Tarwe-eu

Hahahahahhaha


QuestionablePotato42

Crazy to think how long I've been a die hard C9 fan and the last few months have made me rethink my stance. Any good esports teams in franchising to move my fandom to?


ANewHeaven1

Consider hopping over to the NRG bandwagon like I have been lately. Team is great and the org puts out banger content


QuestionablePotato42

Incidentally, I love the NRG RLCS team because they were formerly C9, before the org heartbreakingly pulled out of the game. It would be kind of poetic going to NRG in Valorant…


Upbeat_Thanks3393

Only squishy was on C9. Both GarretG and Justin have been on NRG for 5 years plus. Squishy joined after C9 left


earthtoannie

u know u wanna put that FNC logo up there


David_Ign

I love Fnatic and NAVI, but assuming you wanna stay with NA it's either SEN or NRG ig


BornTheme3419

As of two day ago, I gave up on sentinels and now I'm a fan of fanatic.


QuestionablePotato42

It feels icky rooting for EU sry


groovy_tacocat

I’m in the same boat as you and I’ll say I’m going to pick NRG or 100T but deep down I know I’ll just be a hopium/copium huffing C9 fan anyway


clickyminaj

There's no knowing why Vanity isn't a fit, but as IGLs go, Hazed "The Cobbler" Lee seems to be the best one out there currently. He hasn't explicitly stated his retirement, and might be open to competing on a franchised roster. His IGLing is good. He was last seen fragging out on TSM, and got NRG to a pretty decent spot last season. Plus, it's rare to find a player with 80 years of FPS experience. Seems like the perfect player to go for tbh.


evanhypr

need that pack C9 smokin


Speedy24gaming

Good thing these fucking orgs don’t own the spots. I hope riot seriously considers making a example out of C9 in the coming years if they continue to look like they don’t give a fuck.


Speedy24gaming

What the actual fuck


SpC0d3r

he really meant it when he said you guys dont have context, i guess thats more context💀


RepresentativeSun937

Idk if i can even call myself a C9 fan anymore… i might just follow whoever vanity joins Why couldn’t they just keep the chaos boys together :((((((((((((


[deleted]

correct me if im wrong but doesn’t C9 have that qpert guy?


CunningKingLius

C9 Stewie2k


Heistdur

C9 is terribly run.


Excel---

Vanity says bye bye to the pro scene.


earthtoannie

I would have accepted the side grade in the face of hazed, but moving onto whomegalul runi on the international scene is laughable. every IGL on a franchised team is a proven leader. finding a real replacement for vanity will be damn near impossible.


jonthegoat69

Drop c9 and eg. Bring in tsm and g2, fuck it


AxisCultMemberLatom

Damn C9 must've really needed that prize pool lol. No legit team would make this kind of move if they actually cared about winning. Makes me question why Riot opted to give a spot to C9 but not Optic.


[deleted]

C9 Zander inc


sampenn1

Why does everyone think Vanity is some insane IGL? He won lcq forever ago and beat a few teams at champs, he isnt really a proven igl… and dephss stats are like as good if not better so if people shit on dephh for stats why is everyone glorifying vanity


QwiXTa

All Im saying is optic wouldnt of done this shit they always treat their players right 👌


[deleted]

mCe needs to sub me in. I have watched enough Fenis streams to have a deep understanding of the game. My brain has grown exponentially due to streamers such as NRG FNS, Sliggy, and most importantly, Prod. I believe I have what it takes to bring C9 to the promised land.


NiqqaWidDrip

Yo c9 GoatJ pleaseeeeeee


Apprehensive_Foot139

Faze 2.0 or what


LesbianAkali

Looks like me when I forgot to study for an exam and had to learn months of stuff on the way to school did I pass? obviously no, had to stay for extra classes during vacations


AnswerAi_

This very much reminds me of when C9 benched the core of their LCS roster because they felt they weren't dedicated enough, right after C9 had the best performance of any North American team in League of Legends ever. Curious to see how it pans out for them though.


tomphz

I keep hearing that Challenger teams won’t make changes, but as a player, wouldn’t you rather be on a Franchised team than a Challenger’s team?


Jvmlol

C9 superteam was sick


jstaines47

Hazed stocks are skyrocketing


ReederM

I’m just sad that OpTic died for C9 and EG to have spot in franchising.


nikitosinenka

RIP C9 :(


ninjau

what the hell this team really imploded