TSM (Team SoloMid) will play their first officials next week in the Thunderpick EU Series 2. The North American organisation have returned to Counter-Strike for the first time since 2016 and have brought UK star Cai “CYPHER” Watson along for the ride, signing a team headed up by former G2 and Vitality coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam. The international combine also features Valdemar “valde” Vangså, Mădălin-Andrei “MoDo” Mirea, Audric “JACKZ” Jug and Timofey “interz” Yakushin for a combination of tier 1 experience and young talent.
This brings to an end a transfer saga that threatened to overshadow the team before they played a game. CYPHER was initially linked with them at the beginning of July in a report from 1pv. The team was set to debut at CCT Online Finals #2 according to Dust2.us, but backed out before XTQZZZ parted ways with the project. There were rumours at one point that the project could collapse altogether, but it seems that those issues have been resolved and the players will line up in the black and white after all.
The roster played the two EU IEM Sydney Open Qualifiers under the name “ICH”, where they were eliminated by Endpoint and Swedish mix knasigT respectively. TSM are not competing in the ongoing ESEA League Season 46, but will be expected to compete in the upcoming BLAST Fall Showdown qualifiers and other events such as CCT.
TSM first entered Counter-Strike in 2015 with the signing of the former Team Dignitas roster, the Danish team whose core would later win 4 Majors after forming their own organisation, Astralis. In 2016 they acquired a North American roster, which parted ways with the organisation following Sean “sgares” Gares’ involvement in the open letter to the Professional Esports Association and the players opting to continue playing with him in the fallout. They announced a potential return to Counter-Strike earlier this year and after sitting out the BLAST Paris Major, have finally delivered on their promise. Thunderpick EU Series 2 starts next week and also features UK side Endpoint, the organisers announced today.
TSM’s current roster is:
Valdemar “valde” Vangså
Cai “CYPHER” Watson
Audric “JACKZ” Jug
Timofey “interz” Yakushin
Mădălin-Andrei “MoDo” Mirea
Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (coach)
Lambert “Lambert” Prigent (analyst)
