The North American VALORANT Challengers League will start in a month, and the TSM managed to lock its starting roster on Wednesday.
TSM saw the return of James “hazed” Cobb and Nicholas “NaturE” Garrison, who will now be added to the major team members from the 2022 VCT campaign.
The players retained are Johann “seven” Hernandez, Corey Nigra, and Anthony “gMd” Guimond. Long-serving Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik remains a member of the squad but is not included in the starting lineup.
Subroza is the only player remaining from the mouseSpaz group from 2020, although hazed could also be considered a foundation member.
Hazed was with NRG in 2022, but after a huge performance during the year, he’s back at TSM, while NaturE is joining on the back of stints with Immortals and Gen.G.
TSM couldn’t secure a partnership in the off-season, but they managed to reassure commitment to playing in the North American VALORANT.
The reassurance was made in September by TSM’s VP of eSports, Dominic Kallas, who revealed that leaving the VALORANT was not an option after spending 9 years in the scene.
“TSM has been a partner with Riot since 2013, and is one of the few profitable esports orgs, so it doesn’t make sense for us to get up and leave the scene tomorrow,” Kallas said.
TSM hasn’t had success in the last two years in the VCT, with their best run being in 2020 when they had a grand finals appearance at first strike.
The NA Challengers and Ascension ecosystem is another means for TSM to return to its glory days. They have also been limited to regional qualifiers in recent years.
Meanwhile, there is no confirmation yet whether TSM will get a direct call to the NA Challengers or not.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
