The Russian player was moved to the bench and replaced by Timur “?buster?” Tulepov following C9’s quarterfinal loss at the IEM Rio Major in January. Now that his contract has been terminated, interz has the choice to explore other options as a free agent.

“We want to thank @interz for helping C9 CS:GO become an international powerhouse once again and wish him luck in his future endeavors,” Cloud9 wrote via Twitter.

Interz spent four years playing alongside the likes of Sergey “?Ax1Le?” Rykhtorov, Vladislav “?nafany?” Gorshkov, and Dmitry “?sh1ro?” Sokolov. The team started competing together in 2019 under the Gambit Youngsters banner.

By January 2022, interz was placed on the inactive roster after the team ended the season poorly. Prior to then, he helped Gambit stand out during the late stages online era, earning them first place in the CS:GO world rankings with title runs in the BLAST Premier Spring Final and IEM Katowice.

Interz and his squad eventually moved to Players, and by April 2022 they were signed to Cloud9’s lineup, where he went on to win IEM Dallas. There, the rifler bagged his second-highest LAN rating that year with a 1.04 average and impressed in the latter stages with strong displays against BIG in the semifinals (1.47) and ENCE in the finals (1.29).

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Back in early December, www.fridaynightmadness.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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