Cloud9 has switched captains after their group stage exit at ESL Pro League.

Perfecto hopes the switch will help us see "the old electroNic" again

Ilya "?Perfecto?" Zalutskiy has revealed that Cloud9 have transitioned to Abay "?HObbit?" Khassenov as their primary in-game leader in a post-game interview with James "?BanKs?" Banks after the Russian squad defeated G2.

The switch occurred after a disastrous ESL Pro League for the team, an event at which Konstantin "?groove?" Pikiner pointed to having "a lot of stars and a lot of voices" as issues that were holding the would-be superteam back.

Read more groove: "We have some problems because we have a lot of stars and a lot of voices"

Their solution to that, in the short term at least, is a switch of leadership. "Now we have HObbit as the IGL, so we tried to swap some roles so that he can call with comfort," Perfecto explained. "For example when he played Anubis from T side on B, he can't see the map and the information."

The other factor is the release of Denis "?electroNic?" Sharipov back to being a pure fragger after acting as the IGL for more than a year in Natus Vincere and Cloud9. According to Perfecto, "electroNic wants to go back to the beast, the old electroNic."

electroNic wants to go back to the beast, the old electroNic Ilya "?Perfecto?" Zalutskiy

Cloud9's form has improved at BLAST Fall Showdown, with wins over Movistar Riders and G2 setting up a grand final against BIG.

Rumours of a possible HObbit departure, with Kirill "?Boombl4?" Mikhailov coming in as IGL, began with a post from harum1 and had been fuelled by a post on X referencing "Last Christmas" from Cloud9's official account, the song that was famously covered by Winstrike and Boombl4.

But, for now, it is HObbit who will lead Cloud9 into the final against BIG and beyond in Counter-Strike 2.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Europe
08/10/2023	BIG18:00 Cloud9	Match

Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov Age: 24 Team: 1win Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1251 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.68 Natus Vincere #6 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenMihai 'iM' IvanValeriy 'b1t' VakhovskiyJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov Age: 29 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1365 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65 Winstrike Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Age: 23 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 871 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.60 BIG #19 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzMateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiDavid 'prosus' HesseKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Fatih 'gob b' Dayik Movistar Riders #14 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetTiago 'JUST' MouraAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoAdam 'adamS' MarianAntonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez Galder 'bladE' Barcena Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov Age: 25 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1467 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.66 James 'BanKs' Banks Age: 33 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00 Cloud9 #10 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovDenis 'electroNic' SharipovSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner G2 #3 Nikola 'NiKo' Kova?Nemanja 'huNter-' Kova?Justin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Jan 'Swani' Müller Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner Age: 40 Team: Cloud9C