Update (December 19, 2016): Since the time of publication, Cloud9 have officially announced Juan Arturo "Contractz" Garcia and Jeon "Ray" Ji-won for their League Championship Series team. They have also added former CJ Entus coach Jang "Cain" Nu-ri as assistant coach.
North American League of Legends team Cloud9 will build a seven-man roster going into the 2017 League Championship Series season.
The team has promoted its former Cloud9 Challenger jungler Juan Arturo "Contractz" Garcia, who will move to a starting role in the team, and signed former Team Dignitas top laner Jeon "Ray" Ji-won as a substitute, according to sources close to the team and players. The team will retain its 2016 summer lineup, only moving jungler William "Meteos" Hartman to a substitute role.
The team currently has contracts with top laner Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong, mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi, and support Andy "Smoothie" Ta through Nov. 20, 2017. Each of those players intends to stay with Cloud9, despite having other offers and interest from teams both domestically and abroad.
The news comes after Cloud9 began the process to finalize a deal with Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wesley Edens to sell the American businessman its secondary team, Cloud9 Challenger, for a total of $2.5 million. With that sale, Edens is currently in the process of acquiring four of its players -- An "BalIs" Van Le, Hai "Hai" Lam, Johnny "Altec" Ru, and Daerek "LemonNation" Hart.
Prior to joining Cloud9, Contractz, who just became eligible for competing in the LCS by turning 17, competed with Cloud9 Challenger in the 2016 Summer Challenger Series. There, Contractz and his team qualified for the League Championship Series in August, which forced Cloud9 to sell the team during the offseason.
As for 18-year-old Ray, his time with Dignitas recently came to a close after they acquired former KT Rolster top laner Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho in his place. Ray will back up 2013 World Champion Impact on the Cloud9 roster.
Cloud9 declined to comment on this report.
Keep tabs on the League of Legends offseason roster shuffle with updated, insider information on our landing page.