While most of the attention this past weekend was turned toward the Contenders Season One finals, those paying attention to their Twitter feeds may have noticed tweets from players who were formerly on the roster of the North American Cloud9 squad declaring they were free agents.
I am now a free agent. Still LFT OWL. Thanks for the years @Cloud9
— Adam Eckel (@C9_Adam) October 7, 2017
I am officially a free agent now! LFT OWL
— Roolf (@RoolfOW) October 7, 2017
Main support Adam and flex support Roolf announced they were no longer members of C9 and were looking for Overwatch League teams on Saturday. While it is no surprise that C9's North American roster won't be playing under the organization's banner again, it was assumed this meant they were no longer tied to Cloud9 by contracts.
I am a free agent
— Daniel Graeser (@C9Gods) October 8, 2017
Read: https://t.co/U82TVy5WNf
Gods confirmed that this was the case in a Twitlonger on Sunday when announcing his own free agency. In it, he said that Cloud9 had released him from his contract, meaning that any OWL team looking to sign him or his teammates would no longer have to pay a buyout in order to do so.
The free agency announcements of these three players have meaning beyond their release from the Cloud9 organization. As of right now, these players have not been signed to any Overwatch League teams, and with less than a month to go in the signing period and rumors of most OWL rosters being near completion, time is running out for them. This will be their first venture into free agency in a long time for all of these players, and the first time Adam will not be a member of Cloud9 since before the team's release.
Additionally, several players on the old roster were silent over the weekend. Most notably, this includes DPS player Surefour, another player who had been a member of the Cloud9 roster since release. Whether or not this means he has already found an Overwatch League team remains to be seen.