Ax1Le to miss first Cloud9 matches at IEM Cologne 2023

Cloud9 will kick off IEM Cologne 2023 without Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov, as the club announced via their social media accounts. The Russian's place will be temporarily taken by Timur "buster" Tulepov.

Ax1Le was unable to fly to the tournament venue in Germany due to visa delays. It is expected that the player will join the teammates by the start of the playoffs if the team secures a spot in that stage of the event.

Buster is currently under a contract with Cloud9, for which he competed in the first half of 2023. In the summer, amidst lack of positive results, he was benched along with ex-IGL Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov.

Notably, IEM Cologne 2023 will be the debut tournament for the updated Cloud9 roster, which was joined by the duo of NAVI players in Denis "electroNic" Sharipov and Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy during the off-season. The roster will kick off the tournament on Saturday, July 29.

Cloud9 starts at IEM Cologne 2023 with the following roster:

 Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khasenov
 Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy
 Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov
 Denis "electroNic" Sharipov
 Timur "buster" Tulepov

Origin: twitter.com