Cloud9 Kia stack changes ahead of Summer with a coaching overhaul and a reshaped roster

Cloud9 Kia have made a wave of changes heading into Summer, reworking both their coaching staff and their active roster.

The organization confirmed that Christian "IWDominate" Rivera is stepping up as head coach, and brought in Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi and Noh "Arrow" Dong-hyeon to round out the bench.

The promotion comes as Nick "Inero" Smith steps down as head coach and departs the organization. Inero pointed to his mental health, saying he is "not in a good spot right now" and wants to step back from his career to focus on it. Cloud9 thanked him and wished him the best. Inero had held the head coaching role since October 2025, when he replaced Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu — a tenure of roughly eight months. He first joined Cloud9 as a supporting coach in late 2024 before being elevated to the top job.

IWDominate was already part of the staff, working with Cloud9 across 2025 before joining the coaching group as a strategic coach for the 2026 season. His promotion moves him from that role to the top job. He now leads a bench that also retains Marius "Veigar v2" Aune, alongside new additions YamatoCannon — fresh off coaching Los Ratones in LEC Versus and Witchcraft — and Arrow, the former LCK star ADC who moved into coaching in 2023 and won multiple LCS titles with FlyQuest.

The roster changed too. Cloud9 are moving to a seven-man setup, doubling up in two roles. They brought back Lee "Loki" Sang-min in the mid lane while he was still under contract — a buyout that signals how firmly he was their target. He hit rank 1 on the Korean solo queue ladder about a month ago, though he played little during his LCK split. Loki joins Eain "APA" Stearns in the mid lane and, for now, looks the favorite to start there. In the bot lane, Cloud9 added Edward "Tactical" Ra as a second option behind starter Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen, best known for his Team Liquid run across 2020 and 2021

The organization also kept Robert "Blaber" Huang, despite the jungler being one of the most criticized names among fans this offseason — a sign management still backs their veteran core.

The reshuffle lands mid-bootcamp. Cloud9 are training in South Korea at the FearX facility, with the trip provided by the LCS, and play the SOOP tournament on June 26 and 27, streamed on SOOP Global, facing DNS, Dplus, KRX, LOS and FlyQuest.