TSM’s return to CS:GO ahead of CS2’s release was surrounded with hype. But after the roster was leaked on July 24, fans are describing it as “mid” and “average” at best.
The new roster TSM is putting together consists of Into the Breach’s former super entry fragger Cai “CYPHER” Watson, former G2 player Audric “JACKZ” Jug, the ex-North in-game leader Valdemar “valde” Vangså, previous Cloud9 support Timofey “interz” Yakushin, and up-and-coming Romanian AWPer Mădălin-Andrei “MoDo” Mirea, according to leaker Draky. These players will reportedly be coached by Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam, who worked for G2 and Vitality in the past.
Prior to Draky’s leak, we knew that TSM was on the brink of signing CYPHER, JACKZ, and interz plus XTQZZZ, according to a report by 1pv.fr on July 6. 1pv.fr had also already reported that dupreeh was no longer in the plans and that seems to be confirmed based on the latest information obtained by Draky.
Dupreeh and CYPHER were pretty much the reason why the community was hyped about TSM’s return to CS:GO as the former won the BLAST Paris Major in May and the latter was one of the breakout players of the competition. But after seeing that dupreeh is not a part of the lineup and the players TSM reportedly chose to put around CYPHER, the community is no longer so hyped.
“Such a mid team,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “Team Solo Mid,” one Redditor wrote. “[It] seems like an average roster, nothing to be excited about,” another Redditor wrote.
Related: Live Counter-Strike 2023 roster tracker: CS:GO signings and rumors ahead of CS2 release
TSM confirmed at the end of 2022 that it was looking to return to CS:GO for the first time since parting ways with its North American lineup in January 2017 following the removal of in-game leader Sean Gares due to a player rights dispute at the end of 2016.
The organization once housed dev1ce and the rest of the players who went on to form Astralis in 2016, which is another reason people were expecting to see a lineup full of stars in the 2023 return. But, by the looks of it, the players will have to change that negative impression on the server if TSM confirms this is its new roster.
