TSM have announced that they are parting ways with their Valorant team, which failed to qualify for Americas Ascension. The decision is the latest example of the uncertainty that has engulfed the game’s tier-two scene.
The North American organization announced the decision in a Twitter post thanking the players for their service. “While we did not achieve our Ascension dreams together, we’re proud of all the effort every player put in while representing the black-and-white,” TSM said.
The team’s season came to an end in early June following defeats to Moist Moguls and FaZe in the NA Challengers Split 2 Playoffs. Within days, head coach Jacob ‘Daeda’ Hale and assistant coach Andrey ‘Engh’ Sholokhov were shown the exit door, though the team’s future remained up in the air for several weeks.
Today we part ways with our VALORANT roster.While we did not achieve our Ascension dreams together, we're proud of all the effort every player put in while representing the black-and-white. Thank you boys.We have plans to re-enter the scene once the Ascension season resumes. pic.twitter.com/ozXJBT0dAA
— TSM (@TSM) July 8, 2023
According to TSM’s announcement, the organization has plans to re-enter Valorant in 2024, once the new Ascension season begins. But their decision to drop the roster halfway through the year only reflects the current bleak state of tier-two Valorant.
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TSM the latest org to drop Valorant team
Despite Leo Faria, Riot Games’ Global Head of Valorant Esports, stating on June 6 that details about the 2023 offseason were “coming”, there is still no information about which third-party tournaments will be held during the final quarter of the year. Many players have urged Riot to step in and support the tier-two ecosystem amid fears that organizations could momentarily pull out of the game to save several months’ worth of salary.
One of those players was Corey ‘corey’ Nigra, who was on TSM’s roster. “A six-month month break is too long for orgs to want to stay,” he had warned on June 4.
TSM’s announcement comes just 24 hours after G2 dropped their own Challengers League roster, keeping only Shahzeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan as a content creator. MAD Lions and Disguised have also parted ways with their rosters following relegation from the league.
TSM’s former Valorant roster:
- Johann ‘seven’ Hernandez
- Corey ‘corey’ Nigra
- Anthony ‘gMd’ Guimond
- Nicholas ‘NaturE’ Garrison
- Eric ‘Kanpeki’ Xu