Cloud9’s former head coach Max Waldo has officially departed from the organization today after breaking into the North American League of Legends scene with the team over the last two years.
The 23-year-old will be pursuing content creation as his next career path, leaving behind a short but memorable legacy with C9 that ended with the team’s first LCS Summer Split championship since 2013. His path to the head coach position was a roller coaster, but in the end, the team found the success they were looking for.
“[It was] 100 percent my decision to leave,” Waldo said on social media. “I had an awesome two years with C9 and wish them nothing but the best. I made the decision recently which is why I was included in their most recent team announcement.”
Waldo joined C9 at the end of 2020 as a strategic coach and helped the team reach the pinnacle of the league by ending the 2021 Spring Split at the top of the regular season standings with former players-turned-coaches Mithy and Reignover. They eventually took down Team Liquid in the finals but stumbled to an early exit at that year’s Mid-Season Invitational.
By the start of 2022, Waldo was second-in-command behind the team’s newest head coach, Nick “LS” De Cesare. Controversy struck about a month into the year, however, when the 29-year-old streamer was suddenly released by the team because the staff was unable to “come to terms and see eye-to-eye” in terms of the systems in place for the League division.
Related: A full timeline of LS’ tenure as Cloud9’s League of Legends head coach
As a result, Waldo was promoted to head coach this past February to guide the new roster C9 had assembled in the previous offseason. Although they didn’t find any success in the Spring Split, the new-look C9 finally captured a Summer Split trophy, making them the region’s No. 1 seed at the World Championship.
This offseason, however, Waldo was replaced by Mithy as head coach. Aside from a mid lane roster switch, C9’s lineup has remained practically the same from 2022 and will look to build off of the winning season they had this past summer.
The 2023 LCS Spring Split begins on Jan. 26.
