TSM have announced they’re returning to CSGO in 2023, more than five years after their departure from the esport. And this time, they’re building a brand-new roster from the ground up in Europe.
TSM didn’t have a long stay in CSGO, but they certainly had an impactful one. From 2015 to the start of 2017, all-time CSGO greats and future Valorant superstars played for their organization.
Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen and Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken both spent time on TSM years before they’d come together and take home a Major for FaZe and become one of the best teams in CSGO. The Danish in-game leader was also part of the roster that would go on to form Astralis, the most successful team in CS:GO history, with four Major titles to their name.
Now, TSM are coming back with a major focus on cultivating new talent directly from Europe.
TSM’s building a new roster from the ground up
Dominic Kallas, the Vice President of Esports at TSM, announced that the organization would be making a return. But not in the way some fans might expect.
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An organization with the presence and history TSM possesses would be expected to come in and start picking up some of CSGO’s best-established players. But Kallas has a different approach.
He makes it clear in the announcement that their approach won’t be to “go out and buy a top-five team” upon their re-entry to CSGO. Instead, Kallas will be spending a “significant amount of time in Europe” working with a local General Manager, who has not yet been announced, to build a team and the right infrastructure.
“We gave already started discussions with ESL and BLAST about how TSM can be successful within Europe through long-term partnerships,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do, a lot of infrastructure to put in place.”
As a result of their grassroots approach, there isn’t a confirmed roster as of yet. All we know so far is that TSM will be coming back to CSGO in 2023, and that they’re aiming to compete in the biggest tournaments CSGO has to offer.