Ax1Le and Boombl4 leave Cloud9 for BetBoom in roster shakeup

Cloud9 has announced that top players Sergey “⁠Ax1Le⁠” Rykhtorov and Kirill “⁠Boombl4⁠” Mikhailov have departed from the organization’s CS2 roster and that the duo have instead joined BetBoom.

Ax1Le is a Russian CS2 player who started his career in 5balls and then joined Gambit Esports. The rifler moved to Cloud9 when the organization acquired Gambit’s CSGO roster. Throughout his career, Ax1le has achieved much success. His most notable achievement includes being named best rifler of 2022. He also placed 1st place at IEM Dallas 2022 and IEM Katowice 2021.

Boombl4 is another notable Russian CS2 player who is best known for winning the championship title at PGL Major Stockholm 2021. The player is known for his precise aim and tactical awareness. Now, the duo is in the news for transferring to a new team, as Cloud9 has announced that the pair are headed to BetBoom for the 2025 season.

Ax1Le and Boombl4 leave Cloud9 CS2 roster

Cloud9 tweeted that Ax1Le and Boombl4 have left the team’s CS2 roster to join BetBoom in a move that doesn’t come as a huge surprise to fans, given how C9 has been trending. 

On January 10, 2025, Cloud9 tweeted on X to bid farewell to Ax1Le and Boombl4. Cloud9 also said in the tweet that parting ways is never easy and the players will be missed.

The announcement of the departure of the two players almost completely breaks up Cloud9’s existing CS2 roster. Kaisar “⁠ICY⁠” Faiznurov has already transferred to Virtus.pro and G2 is in advanced talks with Cloud9 to arrange the transfer of Nikita “⁠HeavyGod⁠” Martynenko.

With this latest duo leaving, Cloud9 will be left with only HeavyGod and Timofey “interz” Yakushin on its 2025 CS2 roster. The team’s previous roster didn’t make many waves after joining the organization with quite some hype, failing to advance far at the Perfect World Shanghai Major. While the team made it to the big stage, it only won one single map before being eliminated. It was a disappointing result by any measure, and a roster shuffle was largely expected to follow.

Recently, BetBoom failed to qualify for Perfect World Shanghai Major and benched both Vladislav “⁠nafany⁠” Gorshkov and Aleksandr “⁠KaiR0N-⁠” Anashkin in the aftermath of that failure. Now that its new duo has been acquired from Cloud9, BetBoom will hope to greatly benefit from its experience.

Since BetBoom entered into Counter-Strike esports the Russian organization has managed to push its way up many global rankings. The addition of a former Major winner and one of the best riflers in the scene might be the change the organization needs to convert that progress into championship glory.