Cloud9 is signing 24-year-old Khalif “Khroen” Hashim and 28-year-old Juan “JSchritte” Freitas to its new Teamfight Tactics pro team, the organization announced today. Both players used to play in Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm Global Championship before the tournament was canceled and the HotS scene fell out.
Khroen used to play for HeroesHearth, a professional Heroes team that won the second phase of the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship North America Pro League. After his team was bounced out of the 2018 HGC Finals, he announced this retirement from the competitive scene.
“Beyond excited to announce I’ve joined Cloud9 as a Teamfight Tactics player,” Khroen said. “After the HGC died, I was scared I wouldn’t find another opportunity to compete but less than a year later, we’ve made it back into esports.”
JSchritte was also a professional Heroes player who was extremely successful in Brazil. He was able to win multiple tournaments from 2015 to 2018 and is the only Brazilian player to have moved to a North American team. But he wasn’t able to replicate the same success he had in Brazil. JSchritte failed to qualify for HGC 2018 with Team No Tomorrow.
“It’s good to be back,” JSchritte said. “I have always loved this team and now they are like a second family to me. Expect nothing less than my best.”
C9 isn’t the first organization to enter the professional Teamfight Tactics scene. Yesterday, TSM announced that it was signing former pro League player Jang “Keane” Lae-young and 18-year-old Duy “Souless” Nguyen.