North American esports organization TSM is unlikely to secure a spot in the 2023 VCT Americas league, according to Dot Esports’ sources. The status of TSM’s VALORANT division and whether it will compete in Challengers, drop its roster, or leave the game entirely is currently unknown.
Several owners and players have cast doubt on TSM partnering with Riot since yesterday.
The development might be considered a surprise to many, not just TSM fans. TSM has an exceptionally long-standing history with Riot in League of Legends and was one of the first organizations to publicly announce its application for 2023 VCT partnership. TSM also fields a women’s roster in TSM X, as well as an academy roster. By failing to secure partnership, TSM’s reported pursuit of the star-studded OpTic roster will likely come to a close.
TSM entered the VALORANT scene in 2020 by signing the mouseSpaz roster and found a great deal of early success via a grand finals appearance at NA First Strike as Jett/Operator player Wardell blossomed into a VALORANT superstar. But TSM’s VALORANT roster struggled to find sustained success both domestically and internationally during both the 2021 and 2022 VCT seasons, across numerous roster moves.
TSM as an organization has also been in the spotlight over the past few months via its founder and CEO, Reginald. Reginald was accused of verbal abuse and mistreatment by TSM employees, prompting an internal investigation and a Riot one. Reginald was fined by Riot and placed on a two-year probation, in addition to assigned mandatory executive coaching handed to him by the internal investigation.
The current TSM roster consists of Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik, Corey Nigra, Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo, Anthony “gMd” Guimond, and Johann “seven” Hernandez.
