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TSM’s Counter Strike ventures take a dark turn for the worst
TSM has faced several issues on their comeback to the CS GO scene, some of them have been smaller than others, however, this time around it might be enough to collapse the entire project down.
After a lot of hype surrounding TSM’s CS squad, esports journalism website Blix reported gut-wrenching news for TSM fans. The site reported French head coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam officially pulled out from the CS project, with him later confirming it while on an interview with HLTV. On top of that, Blix reported that the entire TSM CS project could collapse entirely due to an ongoing discussion between players and organization around “alleged breaches in verbal agreements”. To be more specific, players are having trouble with the length of their contracts and some bonuses that were not included.
TSM’s return to the Counter-Strike scene has been rumored since the start of 2022, but it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that the organization truly started to look for a roster. The possible line up was leaked back on July 24th, and feature the likes of: aggressive rifler Cai “CYPHER” Watson, former G2 member Audric “JACKZ” Jug, ex North in-game leader Valdemar “valde” Vangså, former Cloud 9 support Timofey “interz” Yakushin, and a promising young AWPer in Mădălin-Andrei “MoDo”’ Mirea.
The roster had some pieces that could bring in wins rather early in their playing stint, however without the likes of XTQZZZ as their head coach, it would be extremely tough to continue the project.
TSM’s roster debut was set to start at the CCT Online Finals Stage 2, which would start on August 2nd, however the organization proactively pulled out of the event on July 29th according to Dust2.us. It is never a good sign when an organization cancels a tournament appearance barely 4 days before it starts, and this case is not an exception.
Of course now that the community knows XTQZZZ will no longer be part of TSM’s CS ventures and that the entire project might collapse, it ultimately makes sense TSM would not play the tournament.
TSM’s Counter Strike budget might not help the situation, as even the original roster lacked the superstar power fans expected. Sources close to Blix mentioned TSM might be able to make some roster changes, if the contract disagreements continue during the next week. With the CS GO free agency officially closed, most of the Tier 1 talents have already found a new home for the remainder of the year. Thus it will be extremely hard for TSM to gather a roster that could rival other North American organizations such as Complexity in 2023.
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