Cloud9 release Apex Legends team

Gregory "Grego" McAllen, Joseph "Frex" Sanchez and Timothy "Overpowered" Liang were signed by Cloud9 within the first few months of Apex being released. FACEIT Pro Series results were disappointing for the trio, with a 9th place finish overall due to poor showings from across four weeks. The EXP Invitational at X Games saw them finish 15th and far beyond the top ten spots with prize money.

No new organisation has been announced for the former Cloud9 players. There are only a handful of large organisations with full teams half a year after the game first launched.

Apex Legends has had a slow competitive growth, with very few events for the game and FACEIT being one of the few TOs putting on regular events. The upcoming Apex Legends Preseason Invitational with a $500,000 prize pool has dozens of invites left to reveal and it is likely the ex-Cloud9 team will attend. A strong performance could see new org offers, while a disappointing one could be immensely damaging.

Some smaller organisations have dropped their Apex Legends teams in recent months such as CrowCrowd and Conquer Gaming, as well as bigger names like Immortals and Dignitas.

The slow development of the competitive side of the game, with a ranked mode only being added with Season 2, as well as prolific cheating led to many turning away from Apex Legends. With Fortnite hosting a $30million World Cup and PUBG's own leagues developing further, the battle royale genre doesn't have space for 100 different competitors.

The news comes just four days after Cloud9 also released their PUBG team, who had found more success and were considered one of the better teams within North America. Both teams have had their relevant game tabs on Cloud9.gg removed, suggesting C9 are looking to take a step back in both titles for the near future.