Max Waldo is parting ways with Cloud9 League of Legends after 2 years and a regional championship with the organization.
Formerly known as Kaizen, Max Waldo made his LCS debut as a positional and strategic coach of Cloud9 in 2021 after working at 100 Thieves Academy.
Cloud9 announced their roster for the 2023 season a month ago, which included the change of Max Waldo’s position from head coach to positional coach after the return of Alfonso “Mitya” Aguirre Rodriguez.
Now, a few weeks after this announcement, Cloud9 LoL has tweeted about the sudden change. “Today Max is leaving Cloud9 and our League of Legends team to create content.
A wonderful coach, friend and content machine — thank you!”
Today Max departs from Cloud9 and our League of Legends team to pursue content creation
An amazing coach, friend, and content machine – thank you @MaxWaldo_! pic.twitter.com/D5PWnD6DvQ
— Cloud9 League of Legends (@C9LoL) December 29, 2022
Max himself told more about his departure: “100% my decision to leave, I spent an amazing 2 years with C9 and wish them only the best. I made the decision recently, so I was included in their latest team announcement.”
Not a single member of the League of Legends team responded publicly, except for Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami with a simple “goodbye, Mr. Waldo.”
The coach’s name became known recently, a year after he joined Cloud9. This is partly due to the signing of Nick “LS” De Cesare, another well-known player in the international League of Legends and a friend of Max, as head coach of C9. LS is leaving just a few weeks after that, causing controversy throughout the region. Then Max Waldo took the vacant LS seat until the end of the year. Under his leadership, the Boys in Blue finished second in the spring regular season, but came fourth in the playoffs.
In the summer, Max Waldo and C9 finished worse, taking 5th place after the round-robin system. However, they then defied expectations and won the 2022 LCS championship after defeating 100 Thieves in the final. Their run at the World Cup ended the same way as many other Western teams — they could not get out of the group stage.
It looks like Max Waldo will be creating content in the future. He already releases educational content on his YouTube channel from time to time. Perhaps he intends to make more content more regularly after he lets go of his organizational duties. He also broadcasts on his Twitch channel, albeit irregularly.
