Cloud9 pull out of CEVO Finals

Cloud9 have announced that they have decided against attending the upcoming CEVO S6 offline finals.

The North American giants had secured one of the four places at the CEVO-P season finals after beating affNity and Denial in the online qualifiers with 2-0 and 2-1 scorelines, respectively.

However, Cloud9 came to the conclusion that sending the team to Columbus, Ohio, for the event was not worth the money, considering the tournament's prize fund, which currently stands at $11,721.

Cloud9 will skip CEVO-P finals 

Despite the decision, the team will not be barred from the upcoming CEVO season, which will feature a minimum prize purse of $75,000 for the professional division plus $42,000 in travel support, says Cloud9 manager Tres "stunna" Saranthus.

The logistical requirements for competing at the LAN simply doesn’t equate in terms of cost and reward. A crowdfunded tournament is something that we support wholeheartedly and we would like to thank all of the contributors towards the current prize pool. Upon reaching out to CEVO, we could not come to a suitable means for making the attendance worth the cost of travel to Columbus, Ohio. Head league official, Chris Pipher, was extremely helpful in this process and we would like to graciously thank him for his support. 

"The logistical requirements for competing at the LAN simply doesn’t equate in terms of cost and reward," Saranthus said in a statement.

"A crowdfunded tournament is something that we support wholeheartedly and we would like to thank all of the contributors towards the current prize pool.

"Upon reaching out to CEVO, we could not come to a suitable means for making the attendance worth the cost of travel to Columbus, Ohio. Head league official, Chris Pipher, was extremely helpful in this process and we would like to graciously thank him for his support. 

"With the time of the LAN now opened up, we will also be using this as more preparation for ESEA S17 LAN in Dallas, Texas.

"In addition, we have been informed by CEVO that there will be no penalties received on our end for opting out of the event going forward into the next season of their league.

"We wish them the best of luck in finding a replacement team and hope that with the time frame given it is of no trouble."

Meanwhile, CEVO has announced that it will hold a consolation playoff match between eLevate and SKDC, the fifth and sixth placed teams from the current season, to determine who will replace Cloud9.

The CEVO-P Season 6 finals will take place from April 13-15 at MLG.tv's arena in Columbus, which will also host the offline finals of Season 7.