The news of Ax1Le’s absence came about after the team released a statement on the Cloud9 CS:GO Twitter page, explaining ��technical issues at the visa processing centre�� had delayed his arrival to Cologne, Germany.

Cloud9 CS:GO IEM Cologne roster update pic.twitter.com/AvQqpqSSLC

— Cloud9 CS:GO (@C9CSGO) July 27, 2023

Cloud9 fans will have to wait a little longer for the debut of the new roster, with the organisation expecting Ax1Le to arrive and join his teammates for the playoffs, if they are to qualify.

There is no doubt that Cloud9 will be up against it during the group stage without Ax1Le, as he is their highest-rated player over the last three months.

His replacement, buster, was benched by Cloud9 earlier this month to make way for their new signings, Denis ��electroNic�� Sharipov and Ilya ��Perfecto�� Zalutskiy, who made the switch from Natus Vincere during the player break.

Cloud9 are considered one of the main chances at IEM Cologne, with esports betting sites marking them at +600 in outright betting.

Cloud9 will begin their campaign in Cologne against play-in qualifiers Fnatic on Saturday at 12:30pm CEST.

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The 23-year-old player, who is a former player of Virtus.pro, will be replacing Cloud9��s supporting rifler Timofey “interz” Yakushin, who has been on Cloud9��s roster since April 2022.

“Entering 2023 season with a new line-up. Please welcome @bustercsgo as he replaces interz in our starting line-up,” Cloud9 tweeted.

Buster started his CS:GO career in 2016, and has played for a few teams since then. The rifler has represented zARLANS, LoG, AVANGAR, and then he joined Vitrus.pro in December of 2019. Before his new signing on January 17 of this year, he was moved to Virtus.pro��s inactive roster on May 23, 2022.

Since starting his career in 2016, buster has won a few tournaments, such as the 2019 CIS Minor Championship in Katowice with AVANGAR, and then the 2019 BLAST Pro Series: Moscow, the 2020 DreamHack Open in December, and the 2022 ESL Challenger #48, all of which he played in Virtus.pro. He also reached the finals in some events but was denied the trophy as he landed in second place; some of these events include the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major and the 2021 Intel Extreme Masters XV-World Championship.

Whilst buster has filled in the gap in Cloud9��s lineup, it is still unknown which team interz will be joining. The player is yet to reveal whether or not he is already in talks with a CS:GO team. However, in the following weeks, it is likely that a report on the player��s future will be revealed.

The Cloud9 2023 CS:GO roster now consists of the team��s Russian in-game leader Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov, 21-year-old AWper player Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov, rifler Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov, Abai “HObbit” Haseno, buster and their 39-year-old Russian coach Konstantin “groove” Pikiner.

Buster will be making his debut with the team at the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, which is scheduled within the time frame of January 31 to February 12, that is, in thirteen days.

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Back in early December, www.iirgulf.com reported that the North American-owned Counter-Strike outfit were looking for a replacement since their quarterfinal exit at the IEM Rio Major in November of last year.

According to several sources in the CS:GO community, buster has been high on Cloud9��s list of potential signings, however, there is said to have been multiple players that were considered and spoken to.

With interz confirmed to be leaving the esports organisation, we expect to hear from Cloud9 in the coming days to confirm buster as their newest addition to the CS:GO roster and with his debut to come at IEM Katowice, on January 31.

Buster was benched by Outsiders back in May of 2022 after the PGL Major Antwerp, where he and Mareks ��YEKINDAR�� Galinskis were replaced in the line-up.

With the move to Cloud9 imminent, buster will be hoping for a successful transition much like his ex-teammate YEKINDAR, who signed with Team Liquid late last year.

With the addition of the 23-year-old Kazakhstani rifler, the Cloud9 roster for their first series of the IEM Katowice play-in should look like this;

• Vladislav ��nafany�� Gorshkov
• Dmitry ��sh1ro�� Sokolov
• Sergey ��Ax1Le�� Rykhtorov
• Abay ��Hobbit�� Khasenov
• Timur ��buster�� Tulepov

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