Cloud9 Returns To Dota 2 Signing Full Entity Roster

Dota 2

July 21, 2024

Michael Hassall

North American esports organization Cloud9 has re-entered Dota 2 esports, signing the roster of European-based, Indian-owned team Entity. The announcement was made across social media on Sunday, July 21.

The new Cloud9 Dota 2 roster, which will operate under the banner of Cloud9 BC.GAME, will feature Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov, Volodymyr “No[o]ne-” Minenko, Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, Vladislav “Kataomi`” Semenov, and Dzmitry “Fishman” Palishchuk. Coach Filipe Astini, has also been retained by the players’ new organization. The team’s BC.Game sub-title comes from Cloud9’s crypto betting sponsor of the same name.

Image via Twitter/X

At the time of writing, details of the acquisition, and whether Entity will remain in Dota 2, are unknown. Entity’s social media retweeted the announcement, but not a farewell post. Esports.net has reached out to Entity for comment.

Cloud9 Returns to Dota 2

Image Credit: Cloud9

Cloud9 has had a tumultuous history in Dota 2, fielding many rosters, but rarely keeping them around for an extended period of time. The organization’s first foray into Dota 2 in 2014 featured legends such as Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao, SingSing, and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling.

That initial roster went through multiple iterations, (and is notorious for taking part in one of the longest professional Dota 2 games in history) culminating in a run at The International 2015 featuring Johan “N0tail” Sundstein. After TI, the team would briefly pick up a North American roster before quickly dropping them two months later.

This would be a familiar move for C9 in Dota 2, as it picked up a new roster in January 2017, before dropping them in May, picking up a new roster in July, and quietly disbanding in August.

Cloud9 would be absent from Dota 2 for two more years, eventually signing a new roster in 2020, but again shuttered its Dota operation in April of the same year. In 2023, the ended a partnership with long-time streamer and original Cloud9 Dota player SingSing.

Now, the former Entity roster have become the latest members of the C9 lineage. While C9 has often had big names on its Dota 2 roster, its trophy cabinet has been gathering dust for several years. Hopefully, this stack, who finished first in the recent TI Western Europe Closed Qualifiers, will be able to bring home some gold for their new organization.