Reports are indicating that TSM is about to sign and complete a roster core for their return to Counter-Strike. The organization has been away from Counter-Strike for over six years, and they seem to have chosen to go with some of the biggest names in CS and an international set of players ahead of the release of CS2.
Counter-Strike 2 release is getting closer, and TSM is said to be closing in on signing the trio of Englishman Cai “CYPHER” Watson, French player Audric “JACKZ” Jug, and Russian player Timofey “Interz” Yakushin. This is initiated by former Vitality/G2 coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam.
XTQZZZ played a major role for Vitality at the BLAST Paris Major victory in May behind the scenes after retiring from their head coaching role in late 2022. That was the same event that exposed CYPHER to the worldwide pro-Counter-Strike audience as he helped the team in their unexpected run to the Into The Breach playoff run; it is also the first time a British roster core reached the playoffs of a Major.
JACKZ was formerly with G2 and most recently played for the French roster HEET. Reports had linked him to Evil Geniuses initially, claiming that he would be joining the likes of electroNic and EliGE as part of an ambitious international roster. Still, those moves failed to materialize, leading to the links with TSM, who are reportedly about sign the Frenchman.
On his part, inter was with Cloud9 for a while before he left recently. He joined C9 after emerging from Gambit Youngsters in late 2020 and became that organization’s main roster alongside some of his fellow graduates. He won some big trophies during the 2021 “online era,” and he, alongside that group, departed the team for C9 together.
Meanwhile, TSM is not interested in Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi, and Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras anymore.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
