swag steps in for Cloud9 at RGN

Cloud9 will field former iBUYPOWER member Braxton "swag" Pierce as a stand-in at the RGN Pro Series Championship, team manager Tres "stunna" Saranthus has revealed.

Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce will step into the shoes of Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares, who is unable to compete in the tournament, which starts on Monday, as he will be out of town for a wedding.

The 19-year-old talent has been out of action since January, when he and three of his iBUYPOWER teammates were banned from all Valve-sponsored events after being implicated in a betting scandal.

RGN LAN could be swag's last tournament, says stunna 

Three months later, he joined Cloud9 as an analyst to help to improve the team, who had just revamped their roster with the additions of Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham and Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir.

"It is most unfortunate that we won't be using Sean at RGN Pro Series LAN in Orange County," team manager Tres "stunna" Saranthus told HLTV.org.

"Sometimes, life lines up in such a way that an absence is unavoidable. We looked at a few different options for players to use in his stead but ultimately the ruleset for the tournament had been made with these players being allowed to play.

"This could very well be Braxton's last tournament ever for all we know given the current state of the jurisdiction given by Valve."

This weekend, Cloud9 will be in action at the iBUYPOWER CS:GO Invitational, where they will field their normal lineup. A whopping $100,000 and a spot at IEM San Jose will be on the line in this tournament.

Cloud9 have been drawn in Group B for the RGN Pro Series Championship, where they will have to face compLexity, Method and Nexus Storm. Their lineup for the event will be:

Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert
Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek
Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham
 Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir
 Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce (stand-in)

Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir Age: 22 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 163 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.72 Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham Age: 22 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 286 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.60 Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert Age: 25 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 283 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67 Sean 'seang@res' Gares Age: 27 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.88 Maps played: 284 KPR: 0.59 DPR: 0.67 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiek Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 221 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67 Braxton 'swag' Pierce Age: 19 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 133 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.64