North American esports organization Cloud9 announced that they’ve parted ways with Josh “Shinobi” Abastado.
According to Cloud9’s post, it was actually the team’s star player, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, who contacted Shinobi and asked him to join the team in July. Shinobi had just made the switch to Valorant after his six-year pro career in CS:GO.
Both players were both part of the North American CS:GO stack called Bad News Bears, where TenZ was the captain and Shinobi was the in-game leader of the squad.
Shinobi would eventually help Cloud9 climb the North American Valorant rankings with a second-place finish in an Ignition Series event, the PAX Arena Invitational. Shinobi also shared his favorite memory with the team — when they defeated TSM in the Pulse Invitational, where they finished runner-up in the tournament.
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“We knew that with the right lineup, that we really were going to maximize our potential. We pretty much dominated TSM that game, and that started a good run of form for us where we were consistently making the finals,” said Shinobi. “That was also the match where the Jett memes and the Shin-Odin memes started.”
Shinobi mentioned that “hopefully you guys will see me competing again soon, on or off the server,” which hints that he is open to coaching Valorant squads in the future. Cloud9’s Valorant roster has given strong performances throughout the year, but the team failed to qualify for the First Strike North America tournament after they were upset by Renegades during the first qualifier. They then lost to T1 in the second qualifier, which ultimately caused the team to make changes to their roster.
With Shinobi out of Cloud9’s Valorant roster, Chaos Gaming’s active CS:GO player Nathan “Leaf” Orf, stood in as its fifth member during the JBL Quantum Cup tournament.
Cloud9 has yet to make an official statement on who the team will sign as its fifth member. With the Valorant Champions Tour right around the corner though, fans can expect the announcement to be made soon.
Cloud9 Blue’s Valorant roster:
- Tyson “TenZ” Ngo
- Skyler “Relyks” Weaver
- Mitch “mitch” Semago
- Daniel “vice” Kim
- James “JamesIRL” Macaulay
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