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‘Chiu on This’ is a short and regular opinion blast

With news that TSM is looking to once again expand into CS:GO, I thought I’d break down their potential options at the moment. The report by Dekay says that they were looking to see if any of the benched players were interested in joining.

If we look at the scene, it seems likely that the main candidates include: ChrisJ/STYKO from Mouz, Karrigan from FaZe, Ex6TenZ from G2, and tarik from MIBR.

Among the three, I think Karrigan is already out. I don’t see any draw for Karrigan joining TSM as they currently have no team. In addition to that, his history with TSM wasn’t particularly great as at the end, he and the other players on the team had to pay for their own manager.

ChrisJ and STYKO are probably the best duo that TSM could get right now. With those two you get a leader, an AWPer, entry fragger, and a support player. After that you can surround them with some young skilled players and potentially get a Mouz jr.

Ex6TenZ is a possible choice as well, but that could lead to a dead end for TSM. While I have respect for Ex6TenZ as an in-game leader, there are no inroads into the French scene with him at the moment. Given how G2 ended up faring, I think his credit with the general CS:GO community is at an all-time low. With that being the case, his name value alone won’t draw in good talent outside of ScreaM (who has his own issues). As that’s the case, the rest of the team would likely be filled out with young talent and Ex6TenZ hasn’t struck me as the type of in-game leader who can take a raw piece and make it even better.

If TSM want to do a NA lineup, there are two choices: Tarik or FNS. Tarik is the better choice as he is a star player and someone who can lead a loose style of calling. While the optimal solution is to get both and have FNS call, their history on Cloud9 makes me think that such a formulation would no longer work.

One last name to mention is NEO as he has the one of the biggest names among all of the players that are available. The problem with him is that I don’t know what the second step is after getting him.

Overall, there are some pieces to be had in CS:GO right now, but nothing that jumps out as a surefire winner. Regardless of what TSM does, it will be a gamble.

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