After five years in the Valorant esports scene, TSM officially ended its run in the competitive realm.
On November 4, 2025, TSM Valorant took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce the end of its Valorant competitive run, closing the chapter on what was once one of North America’s most promising teams.
The announcement came at a time when the organization had also faced challenges outside Valorant, from its turbulent FTX partnership to its departure from League of Legends’ North American League Championship Series (LCS), marking another step in the gradual decline of one of esports’ most storied names.
The rise and fall of the TSM Valorant campaign
TSM’s exit from Valorant marked the end of a long chapter for one of North America’s most recognizable esports organizations. The team’s final appearance came during the VCT Ascension Americas 2025 tournament, where the North American squad finished as the runner-up after a 1–3 loss to Team Envy in the grand final.
When Riot Games launched Valorant on June 2, 2020, TSM quickly established itself as one of the region’s top organizations. The team signed a former CS:GO up-and-coming stars featuring Matthew “Wardell” Yu and Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik, who became key figures in North America’s early competitive Valorant scene.
This 2020 roster went on to deliver strong results, winning the T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown and the FaZe Clan Invitational, which helped propel the team’s popularity. They later finished second in Riot Games’ First Strike tournament following a 1–3 loss to 100 Thieves in the grand final.
Unfortunately, TSM’s early success did not carry over into the following seasons. Despite being one of the most popular teams in North America, TSM failed to qualify for any of Riot’s international events from 2021 through 2022.
When Riot Games launched the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) and introduced its international partnered leagues, TSM was not selected to join the Tier 1 scene. Instead, the organization opted to compete in the Challengers circuit (Tier 2). Frequent roster changes and inconsistent results prevented the team from reclaiming its early success.
In the midst of its competitive struggles, TSM appeared to find renewed financial momentum when it signed a record-breaking naming rights deal with cryptocurrency exchange FTX in June 2021. The 10-year partnership, reportedly valued at around US$210 million, saw the organization rebrand as “TSM FTX” and purchase US$1 million worth of FTX’s native token for players and staff.
When FTX collapsed and filed for bankruptcy in late 2022, TSM terminated the agreement and removed the FTX name from all operations.
TSM’s decline in Valorant coincided with a similar downturn in its League of Legends division. Once regarded as a dominant force in LCS, TSM announced that it would leave the North American league after more than a decade of competition in September 2023. CEO Andy “Reginald” Dinh confirmed the decision through TSM’s official channels, signaling the end of the organization’s long tenure in the LCS.
Between 2013 and 2017, TSM was among the most successful organizations in the region, winning six LCS titles and qualifying for the World Championship four times. In the years that followed, however, results declined. From 2018 onward, TSM earned only one domestic title with their Summer 2020 win and failed to advance beyond the group stage in most subsequent splits.
With both its Valorant and LCS teams stepping away from the competition, TSM entered a new phase of transition, closing two of the longest-running chapters in the organization’s history. As of writing, TSM continues to field rosters in Halo and Apex Legends, with its most notable active player being William “Leffen” Hjelte, a two-time EVO champion who won Super Smash Bros. Melee in 2018 and Guilty Gear -STRIVE- in 2023.
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