Following a year of lacklustre results, one of the biggest organizations in North America is changing up its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster.
Former TSM AWPer Kory “Semphis” Friesen and in-game leader Pujan “FNS” Mehta will not be competing on the squad in 2017, after roughly five months of poor performances. Despite being officially released from the team, the two players will be competing with the roster at the upcoming ESEA Global Challenge LAN finals between Jan. 5-8.
The space left by the two veterans, who have competed for teams like Cloud9 and Counter Logic Gaming in the past, will now be filled by former Echo Fox players Sean “seangares” Gares and Shahzeb “ShahZam” Kahn, TSM announced today. Both seangares and ShahZam were on the receiving end of a lot of criticism due to the poor showings of Echo Fox throughout 2016, but have in the past shown they are strong in their respective roles while on teams like Cloud9 and Conquest.
For fans of the TSM CS:GO team, the move probably doesn’t come as a surprise given the state of the roster since losing its star player Tim “autimatic” Ta, who left for rivals Cloud9 on Aug. 17. According to TSM’s official press release, the team “has become relatively stagnant since autimatic’s departure.” This isn’t an inaccurate observation, as autimatic’s stock as a player has increased consistently since joining Cloud9, and he has become a vital part of the team’s newfound success.
Seangares’ tenured past as an in-game leader will probably lend itself well to the TSM roster, which almost solely consists of young and up and coming talent. It’s a tall order, but if anyone in North America can bring a roster to the top, it’s seangares.
