Cloud9’s longest-serving player swaps three seasons without an international event for a seat at a partner team that missed every one in 2026.
Sentinels have signed Francis “OXY” Hoang from Cloud9, the organisation announced on X on Monday evening. The 21-year-old American duelist fills the spot left by Jerrwin, who left the team last week, and joins in-game leader johnqt, Reduxx and cortezia on a roster that still has one place open for the 2027 VCT season.
Sentinels kept the announcement short:
A new star for a new era
VLR.gg rated it as perhaps the biggest signing of the Americas offseason so far. It is easy to see why. OXY has been one of the most dangerous duelists in the region for three years, and Cloud9 are not among the eight Americas organisations that Riot named as partners for 2027 and 2028. Sentinels are.
A goodbye to Cloud9
Cloud9 posted a farewell video, “The end of an era.”, about an hour before the Sentinels announcement, as both OXY and Zellsis left the team. OXY wrote his own message a few minutes later:
“All good things come to an end”. I appreciate all the memories and times I had at @C9VAL. It was a dream come true to be given the opportunity to play on the VCT stage alongside all my teammates and I loved all the memories and tribulations we all went through.
He joined Cloud9 in September 2023, after spells at Vireo.pro, YFP, Dark Ratio and G2 Esports, and by the time he left he was the longest-serving player on the roster. Teammates came and went around him, from Xeppaa and vanity in his first season to Zellsis, v1c and the rookies FireBallOps and Jackk in 2026.
The results never followed. Cloud9 have not qualified for a single Masters or Champions event since the partnership system began in 2023, and in OXY’s three seasons their best finish was fourth in Americas Stage 2 in 2025. This year ended early: sixth at Kickoff, 11th to 12th in Stage 1 and out in the Stage 2 play-ins after a 2-0 loss to BESTIA.
The numbers behind the move
His own season looked nothing like his team’s. In Stage 2, no player with at least six maps had a higher ACS or ADR than OXY, and in Stage 1 he shared the top ACS with Less of KRÜ Esports on 240.
| Event | Maps | K-D | ACS | ADR | KAST | FK-FD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Americas Kickoff | 11 | 195-170 | 230 | 144.7 | 68% | 49-38 |
| Americas Stage 1 | 12 | 211-203 | 240 | 149.4 | 70% | 40-53 |
| Americas Stage 2 | 20 | 385-312 | 261 | 161.3 | 71% | 93-77 |
Across 43 maps that comes to 791 kills and 685 deaths, a +106 K-D, with 182 first kills against 168 first deaths.
What Sentinels get
Sentinels need the firepower. They won Masters Madrid in 2024 and went to five international events in 2024 and 2025, but missed all of them this year. They finished ninth to tenth at Kickoff and in Stage 1, and KRÜ knocked them out of the Stage 2 play-ins.
Jerrwin was the duelist for most of that season. Sentinels brought him in on 25 March and moved him to the inactive list in September, with Marved standing in for part of the summer. In their farewell on 30 October, Sentinels thanked Jerrwin for carrying “the torch of a Sentinels Duelist”. JonahP followed him out a day later.
| Player | Status |
|---|---|
| johnqt | In-game leader, stays |
| Reduxx | Stays |
| cortezia | Stays |
| OXY | Joins from Cloud9 |
| Open spot |
Head coach Ewok and assistant coach GUNTER remain with the team.
Who is left at Cloud9
Two weeks after missing out on a partnership seat, Cloud9 have lost their two most experienced players. Of the 2026 lineup, only FireBallOps is still active. v1c and Jackk were moved to the inactive list in October, as was head coach Veer.
Twenty minutes after the farewell video, Cloud9 brought back GLYPH. “It’s the end of one road, but the signs point to the start of another,” the organisation wrote.
