TSM Announces Return To CS:GO In 2023

The prominent North American esports organization, TSM, announced that it will return to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports scene in 2023. With that, TSM will return to CS:GO after a six-year hiatus, having exited the CS esports world in January 2017.

TSM (formerly Team SoloMid) first entered the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports scene in 2015 with a Danish lineup, which featured Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, René “cajunb” Borg, and Finn “karrigan” Andersen, which would go on to win a plethora of big titles.

The Danish roster quickly found traction and won its first tournament, the 99Damage Masters #1, just weeks after forming the team. The team would also find success in some of the biggest events in the scene, namely the ESL One: Katowice 2015 (fifth-eighth), Copenhagen Games 2015 (2nd), PGL CS:GO Championship Series Kick-off Season (1st), and FACEIT League 2015 Stage I Finals.

By the end of the year, Team SoloMid had won 11 tournaments and have placed inside the top three in all but six, which included two top-eight finishes at the two Major Championships. Their success at the highest level of competition saw TSM claim the no.1 world ranking spot in the same year, but things took a sudden turn for the worse at the end of 2015.

In December 2015, TSM’s entire lineup left to join Astralis, forcing TSM to rebuild its team with North American talent. And even though TSM found some success, they couldn’t replicate the same achievements of the Danish squad.

TSM did not win a single event in 2015 but were competitive in big events. Most notably, TSM claimed bronze medals at Americas Minor Championship – Cologne 2016 and Americas Minor Championship – Atlanta 2017, but unfortunately, the project did not survive another year.

In January 2017, TSM announced the departure of its roster, which left for Misfits Gaming, leaving the organization without an active lineup. And while the rebuild was a possibility, TSM decided to pull the plug on its CS:GO division.

Since TSM exited the CS:GO scene, the organization had never hinted about a possible return until this Tuesday, October 3. As revealed, TSM not only intends to return to the CS:GO esports world but plans to build a European lineup and start a project from the ground up.

“We are not looking to go out and buy a top 5 team. Instead, the organization plans to build the project from the ground up and base it in Europe,” said Dominic Kallas, VP of Esports TSM.

“I will spend a significant amount of time in Europe, looking and working with a local GM to help build a roster and infrastructure necessary for this team to succeed. We gave already started discussions with ESL and BLAST about how TSM can be successful within Europe through long-term partnerships. We have a lot of work to do, a lot of infrastructure to put in place.”

Besides the announcement of TSM’s intentions to build a CS:GO lineup in Europe, it’s unclear what path the organization will take. However, TSM announcing its return to the scene is big news, and it’s fair to speculate that more big brands will follow suit.

With CS:GO reportedly nearing the release of Source 2, it’s reasonable to expect more big organizations looking for a way to return to the scene. Moreover, many organizations that didn’t get to join Riot Games’ Valorant partnership league – TSM included – will likely want to swap over to CS:GO to maintain their presence in the FPS esports niche.