by Cloud9, one of the most successful esports franchises in the world, have announced that they will part ways with their coach Max Waldo ahead of the League of Legends Championship Series 2023 season. This news comes as a surprise to many fans and industry insiders, as Waldo has been an integral part of Cloud9’s success over the past few years.
The franchise took to their Twitter page to announce that Waldo will be leaving the team after being a part of the North American League of Legends scene for the past two years with the team.
The American will now focus on content creation as his next career move, leaving behind a brief but notable legacy with C9 that concluded with the team’s first LCS Summer Split championship since 2013. His journey to becoming head coach was tumultuous, but ultimately, the team achieved the success they desired.
Reacting to his exit away from the team, Waldo quoted the official announcement on the C9’s page. He explained the reason behind the impromptu news as he was recently announced as a part of the franchise roster ahead of the 2023 roster.
“[It was] 100 percent my decision to leave,” Waldo said.
“I had an awesome two years with C9 and wish them nothing but the best. I made the decision recently which is why I was included in their most recent team announcement.”
Despite the departure of Waldo, Cloud9 remains one of the top teams in the LCS, and the franchise is confident they will put up a great campaign in the upcoming season. Fans of Cloud9 are understandably disappointed by the news, but many are also excited to see what the future holds for the team. With the 2023 LCS season just around the corner, it will be interesting to see how Cloud9 adjusts to life without Waldo and how the team performs with a different head coach at the helm.
In 2020, Waldo joined C9 as a positional coach and, along with Mithy and Reignover, helped the team achieve great success in the 2021 Spring Split. They finished the regular season at the top of the standings and went on to defeat Team Liquid in the finals. However, their run was cut short at the Mid-Season Invitational later that year.
Waldo was the second-in-command for the team, under their new head coach Nick “LS” De Cesare, at the start of 2022. However, a controversy arose when the franchise released LS, who was formerly a T1 streamer, after they were unable to agree on the systems in place for their League division.
Owing to LS’s exit, Waldo was promoted to replace him as the head coach. After Waldo was promoted to head coach in February, he was tasked with leading C9’s newly assembled roster. Despite not having any success in the Spring Split, the revamped C9 team was able to win the Summer Split and earn the top seed for the World Championship in their region.
However, Mithy has taken over as head coach, thereby replacing Waldo this offseason. Aside from replacing one player in the mid lane, C9’s lineup has remained largely unchanged from 2022 and aims to build on their successful season from the previous summer. Mitchy will lead the roster for the first time at the Spring Split scheduled to commence on January 26, 2023.
