EXCLUSIVE: Cloud9 acquires Melee Creeps

The tier 1 esports behemoth has entered the Deadlock scene, acquiring the longest standing North American team, Melee Creeps.

In an extreme move for the current scene, Cloud9 has acquired the Melee Creeps roster.

Cloud9 roster:

Celebrated community member and former MLC player POSHYPOP will continue to coach the team, and Yodi and Megs will remain the team managers.

North America's Longest Standing Team

Melee Creeps formed back in November 2024 with players AVG, Braeden, CoolCheese, Opp, Bam1 and Saiah. The first few months would see the roster change dramatically as they played. While many players came and went, Saiah was the one constant throughout the team's life thus the team fell into his hands.

Saiah would continually rebuild the Melee Creeps roster, eventually picking up fishcake, DMB, Scout, JonJon, and LordNM. Together they would notably win the Deadlock's first $10k USD tournament, the Trolli Open NS Finals. MLC would face Hydration's juggernaut of a team, Sneaky Golem, sweeping them 2-0 in the finals.

Shortly after, in Deadlock Night Shift #12, Melee Creeps would switch LordNM with eidorian and go on to win DLNS #12 through #29, finally falling to Floormen in #30. Notably, around DLNS #25, DMB would be swapped for dew. At the time of this article, this is the longest standing win streak in DLNS.

Unfortunately, the team became complacent and would have rocky results from here on out. This, combined with a few other factors behind the scene, would lead to every member except JonJon and Saiah leaving the team. This left Saiah with rebuilding the team once again. While he recruited beloved members such as Goober, it wasn't enough to return the team to its former glory.

This is when their biggest opponent, Poppers Pupils, had an idea. While they were searching for a support player, they recognized Saiah as one of the best in NA. So LOMEIN, AVG, League, and Zeno teamed up with super star Saiah and M1 savant JonJon to form arguably NA's strongest roster yet.

This brings us to now, with MLC having approximately over $50,000 USD total winnings to date.

EXCLUSIVE: Why would C9 enter the scene so soon?

Cloud9 had previously approached Melee Creeps around March of 2026. They weren't necessarily looking to sign the team at the time, but rather do a "MLC x Cloud9" partnership in exchange for sponsorship goodies. They were particularly interested in the streamer and player, eidorian. Ultimately, Eidorian and the team decided to refuse the offer. This is an important precedent that Cloud9 has been following the scene for quite some time now, so acquiring a team was inevitable - but why so soon?

The risk: The game is still in a testing phase. While peak concurrent players have hit all high times recently with releases of heroes like Violet, Valve has stated they still have a long ways of go in terms of polish before they wish to release the game (source: PC Gamer). There are no announcements of major tournaments or LANs yet, at least publicly, so we don't know how much Deadlock has to actually offer Cloud9 at the current moment.

The reward: If Cloud9's gamble works, they could possibly have the best North American team and some of the largest North American Deadlock streamers. Players such as LOMEIN, AVG, and occasionally Saiah have been growing their streams. Notably, LOMEIN's streams have grown past the 2,000 concurrent viewer mark, with AVG's getting over 600, and Saiah able to achieve 100-900 viewers (based on the time of day). This helps with marketability, which is appealing to not only the org, but sponsors as well.

The former Melee Creeps roster is now under a one year, salaried contract with Cloud9.

Not the first time this has happened.

The Armenian esports team Virtus.pro picked up a European roster back in February of 2005. The roster consisted of Lystic, Dimov, MikaelS, obikym, Sharyk, and Zerggy with LȊGHTBRINGER as their coach. They often came first in tournaments they competed in, if not 2nd. Eventually at the end of August of 2025 however, Virtus.pro released the players to step away from Deadlock. The team would acquire around $31,700 USD in prize winnings during their time under the tier 1 esports org.

Does Cloud9 know something we don't?

Based on my sources, the magic eight ball is showing "no". While we can't fully predict what Valve is going to do, we can go off one simple fact: Deadlock isn't profitable. This means that Valve has to focus on themselves before they can put effort towards making third parties, such as tournaments or esports organizations, profitable. Big Deadlock tournament organizers, such as ZP of Deadlock Night Shift, have also stated they have not heard of any LANs currently in the works.

What's next?

This is an exciting move for Deadlock esports. It will undoubtedly bring more eyes to the scene and the players themselves. It's possible that other esports organizations will start showing interest in Deadlock. Remember, players like Saiah and LOMEIN started at zero hours. So if you are a current pro player, or an aspiring pro player, I would implore you to clean up your public image and start grinding with purpose. Practice your movement, study your VODs, and start investing in your future. Who knows, you could be the next player on the next team who gets picked up by a well known esports org!