After a magical 2008 season which saw Carolina shock the world by winning the regular season Eastern Division Title and nearly make it to the Championship Match, the Cobras unfortunately could not keep up the magical ride, failing to qualify for the Postseason.  The loss of GM Lev Milman from their team was certainly a huge blow, but also their other core members who all performed spectactularly in 2008 just could not seem to quite get the job done in 2009.

     Despite a very poor start to the season, the Cobras still demonstrated a great deal of heart continuing to put up strong fights until the very end, in particular their longtime veteran FM Oleg Zaikov who, despite being outrated in every game, managed to win his last four games to finish with a plus score in his fourth consecutive season.

     What the future holds for Carolina is very unclear.  The loss of Milman was clearly a great blow to the team, and they might be forced to contend with the additional loss of Zaikov in 2010.  One can only hope that Carolina can locate a few other strong players for their team to fill these gaps and help reenergize their other veterans to lead the Cobras back to the Playoffs in 2010.