For fans of Cloud9 (and just about everyone else) Wednesday was a shock. Only three days before C9 is set to face off against Clutch Gaming Saturday and Optic Gaming Sunday, the team has benched all of their star players. It was announced on Twitter and YouTube that Sneaky, Smoothie, and Jensen would all be moving to the academy team. Their academy counterparts, Goldenglue, Keith, and Zeyzal, will be taking their place. Reapered does say they are changing the “first week starters,” but the team hasn’t verified if they will change after that.

According to head coach Reapered and C9 owner Jack Etienne, the move is more a reward for stellar gameplay from the academy team than it is a punishment for their starting team. To this end, C9 is right. Cloud9 Academy had a great split.

They finished second in the Spring Split and made it to the semifinals before FlyQuest took them out in a sweep. However, it is worth pointing out that Goldenglue and Keith have both been in the LCS before.

Goldenglue served on Team Liquid in 2017, a year that saw them finishing almost dead last. Like Zeyzal, he is more widely known as a Challenger player, one that did well in the lower bracket and which often played against the pros but never quite made enough of a splash to get a Challenger team into the top 10.

Keith, on the other hand, is most well-known for serving as Echo Fox’s ADC for 2016-2017. While he was on the team, they never made it above seventh place. He didn’t make any particularly bad plays, but he also failed to show a level of skill or strategy that put him much above the rest.

But what is baffling most fans is why C9 would do this before their team has even had a chance to play and during the ever-important Summer Split.

Cloud9 had a poor showing in Spring, finishing in fifth place after a strong early showing. Licorice in particular surprised everyone with his skill and aggression, quickly creating talk of Rookie of the split. However, things started to fall apart shortly after. Licorice’s incredible power in the toplane was quickly overshadowed by his weaknesses across the map and his often large mistakes in team fights. Svenskeren performed well, but by no means was he a standout. It was the trio that is currently benched – Jensen, Sneaky, and Smoothie – that carried the team.

In fact, Smoothie was constantly praised as one of the best supports in the current league, and his leadership was a guiding force for the team.

Jack cited several reasons for the changeup, namely their faith in the academy team. He said fans could expect to see the new lineup “performing better than our old roster was.” He added, “You are going to see a team that has a new sense of fire and passion to do well.”

While Jack is making a lot of noise about passion and fire, it still seems odd to kick off the season with a new team, especially one missing its shotcaller. After all, Summer Split is the one that matters, the one that sees the winner going directly into Worlds. If C9 is playing the long game and trying to rest up their best players, they better hope their current lineup doesn’t tank the first few games. This is a team that needs to make a comeback, and right now, this doesn’t look like the way to do it.