Serbian coach Aleksandar «kassad» Trifunovic has announced the end of his association with Cloud9 less than six months after he started working with the team. According to the general manager of the cyber sports organization, Henry «Henry» Greer, the reason for this decision was the coach's disagreement with in-game leader Alex «ALEX» McMeekin: «It can't be said that anyone was at fault or that there was a bad relationship between him and any of the players. Rather, it's about stylistic differences between the in-game leader and kassad's manner, which made it too often necessary to compromise».
Currently, Cloud9 has not yet decided who will be the new coach. It's worth bearing in mind that their options are pretty much limited after ESIC imposed a ban on 37 coaches in September as a result of a high-profile investigation into chit exploitation. The head of Cloud9 emphasized that they are ready to consider different candidates and try new approaches, since the practice of coaching appeared in CS: GO relatively recently and the question of how to use it most effectively remains open.
Meanwhile, kassad plans to join Extremum – a new Russian team, which may include several more North American players.