TSM was considered one of the best teams in North America when Valorant first released. However, the team hasn’t been able to produce the same success in 2021.
This has prompted TSM to make a change by signing former T1 player Braxton “Brax” Pierce as their sixth man at the start of April.
Brax quickly filled in for James “hazed” Cobb and played the Killjoy/Cypher Sentinel role during the Challengers 1. Unfortunately, the squad was eliminated by Gen.G Esports in the open qualifier.
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TSM decided to swap hazed and Brax again in Challengers 2. With hazed back on the roster, TSM got their revenge against Gen.G Esports and emerged as one of the four teams that qualified from the open qualifier.
TSM’s active Valorant roster:
- Stephen “reltuC” Cutler (captain)
- James “hazed” Cobb
- Matthew “Wardell” Yu
- Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik
- Taylor “drone” Johnson
- Braxton “brax” Pierce
- Taylor “Tailored” Broomall (coach)
The 6-man roster strategy originated from CS:GO. It involves organizations selecting the best mix of players for certain maps, or lineups that have matchup advantages against specific teams.
Teams primarily use the 6-man roster to give their players more downtime between tournaments. But some organizations believe that having six members on a given roster is an added incentive for players to do better, because they would all be fighting for an active roster spot.
It will, thus, be interesting to see how TSM moves forward with this roster strategy in Valorant, and if other organizations will pick up the trend.
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