One of the best sides in the North American challenger scene is gearing up for the playoffs with a bootcamp.
Challenger side Cloud9 Tempest has moved into the Cloud9 team house and will have their own office at the Logitech offices, like their sister team, ahead of the League Challenger Series playoffs. Cloud9 is also bringing in a handful of new staff for the team, including three analysts, two coaches, a team manager, and a sports psychologist, to help the players mesh together and perfect their craft.
The team has placed first consistently in League One tournaments and placed third in the AlphaDraft Challenger League. It qualified for the Challenger Series by defeating Counter Logic Gaming Black in the finals after a three-round victory run.
The team’s anchored by star players jungler Anthony “Hard” Barkhovtsev and mid laner David “Yusui” Bloomquist, who are backed up by top laner Colin “Solo” Earnest and AD carry Ben “LOD” DeMunck. Support player Jamie “Sheep” Gallagher, brought in earlier this split after he left Team Coast/Final Five, rounds out the squad. All the players except Gallagher have been together since January.
The team holds a 4-4 record in the Challenger Series this split and sits tied with Imagine for third place. It’s managed to topple the likes of Winterfox and Vortex, but has fallen short versus Imagine and Renegades. The team’s final matchup this week is versus Team Coast, who is currently tied for first with Renegades. Playoffs begin on Aug. 4.
Correction July 20, 2pm CT: An earlier version of this article failed to note that the team was moving into the Cloud9 team house specifically.
Image via Riot Games | Remix by Jacob Wolf
