posted by Malystryx.GDS,
EternalEnvy confirmed the comments by former C9 players se Johan "pieliedie" Åström and ca Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling, that they both did not leave the team, but instead were kicked. However, there seems to be no bad blood with the two former players from a management point of view, with team owner Jack Etienne offering to support them in their future endeavours.


Although no official statement has been made, pieliedie got ball rolling when he confirmed on his stream that it was not his decision to leave but that he was instead kicked from the team. Shortly after Aui_2000 revealed via Twitter that he too was kicked from the team but would not be talking further abut it until official announcements. The two players were replaced by dk Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen and dk Johan "BigDaddy" Sundstein.

After PLD and Aui_2000 voiced publically they had been kicked from the team, EternalEnvy posted on Twitter confirming the fact and also added his own thoughts. "The way the kick was done was awful. I take full responsibility for that. I do not regret my decision even if we get last place." The Cloud9 captain then added "Still, as I mentioned earlier, I will not be giving my reasons to why the kick was done."

The "kicking" of both players seems unlikely to be performance related given that Aui_2000 is widely considered to be one of the best supports in the world, and PieLieDie is known for being a solid and consistent player. During their time in Cloud9 the team qualified for most major events and aside from a shaky couple of months last summer, finished in the top 3 in almost every tournament they participated in.

EternalEnvy confirmed the two players were kicked on Twitter


Although, they were often second best and despite consistent top finishes, they did not win any LAN event in 2014, with second places at DreamLeague Season 1 and 2, The Summit 2, WCA and WEC among others. Based on these facts, it could be that the sudden availability of BigDaddy from Team Secret could have tilted the Cloud9 captain towards deciding to twist rather than stick, given the Dane's recent success. Regardless of the reasons behind the kicking of pieliedie and Aui_2000, which may very well never be made public, the two players may still be involved in Cloud9.

Cloud9 team owner Jack Etienne told the Daily Dot that both pieliedie and Aui_2000 are still supported by the Cloud9 organisation and "I’ve even offered to support them under Cloud9 if they want to make a new team. So technically, Pie and AUI are still on Cloud9 and I’m paying them until they find another team they want to be on. Or, if they want to make a new team with my help I will do that." He also commented that the remaining players "want to win" and their decision to remove the two players was in the hopes it would bring success in the future. Both Aui_2000 and pieliedie were part of the original roster, with Adrian "FATA-" Trinks, who remains on the team, only joining in August.


*UPDATE*


ca Artour "Arteezy" Babev has decided to join his former teammate and friend EternalEnvy by opening up about his DOTA experiences over the last 12 months. His statement was likely catalysed by EternalEnvy's own stream rant, in which he discussed in detail events that saw Arteezy and Zai move to eu Team Secret. He said "[Zai] wanted to stay with EG, but then they lost to VP.Polar and the team was just really toxic so he left with Arteezy. He wouldnt leave alone". Arteezy responded by saying: " Zai got asked to join secret to replace Fly, after Zai said no, Theeban asked me if I wanted to join with Zai". The entire statement was broadcasted during his stream but luckily the entire VOD has been transcribed here.

Arteezy went on to speak about Cloud 9's mental attitude as being "insane" and recalls being in the room with them as "the most depressing tone". He may be speaking from experience after his statement brought to light sombre stories about his old roster. Nevertheless he closed with these words of wisdom: "Cloud 9 got a brand new start, a new image. Sometimes that helps the team grow."


Cloud9's "new roster"
ca Jacky "EternalEnvy" Mao
ro Pittner "bone7" Armand
de Adrian "FATA-" Trinks
dk Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen (not official)
dk Johan "BigDaddy" Sundstein (not official)

This article was written by uk Lawrence Phillips, joinDOTA's Editor-in-Chief.Malystryx has been in eSports since 2004 working as eSports Editor for Razer and was Editor-in-Chief of SK Gaming in its glory days. He misses the days of Warcraft3 but makes do with the world of DOTA 2, although he recently got mesmerised by Hearthstone. Location: Bristol, UKFollow him on @MalystryxGDS.

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