In this series, we look at organizations that had a history in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but are now history themselves. We begin our series with Titan, an organization that looked to dominate the French scene beginning in 2013 with some of the biggest names in the game. But after ending up on the wrong side of multiple French shuffles and their financial future ruined by a cheater, they closed their doors in 2016.





This is how Titan fell.





(Listen to this before reading on for dramatic effect)





The tale of Titan begins in Sept. 2013, when the organization acquired a Malaysian Dota 2 roster from Orange Gaming after a third place finish at the Dota 2 International that year. In just a year, Titan would disband their Dota 2 roster, with the bulk of their players joining Team Malaysia, but Titan would expand into a new scene: CS:GO. On Jan. 1, 2014, Titan acquired the French-Belgian roster of VeryGames. You may recognize some of the names.





Kévin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans Adil “ScreaM” Benrliton Nathan “NBK” Schmitt Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux Richard “shox” Papillon





Prior to their acquisition, this roster was the best in the French scene, and was considered one of the best in the world. They contended with the legendary Fnatic, Virtus.Pro, and Ninjas in Pyjamas rosters that dominated the early days of CS:GO. VeryGames took home multiple championships and finished third at the very first Major, DreamHack Winter 2013. Under the Titan banner, this roster had early success in Stockholm, winning the DreamHack Invitational against NiP, Fnatic, and Team Dignitas (who featured the core of present-day Astralis). However, the success would soon slip away.





Photo via ESL





After placing third at the first Major, the Titan roster had earned a Legends spot at the second, ESL Katowice 2014. Despite an initial win against mousesports, Titan were humbled by eventual champions Virtus.Pro in the group stage, and then were lastly upset by HellRaisers in a close 16-14 loss. It’s worth noting that each match back then was best-of-one, and Titan were drawn into the more competitive group. Regardless, this result was still below expectations.





Following the tournament, Titan would replace shox with former VeryGames member and renowned AWPer Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, but they found little success, culminating in another group stage elimination in Cologne. Rather than ending this Major in a nailbiter, Titan were blown out of the competition by Dignitas 16-1.





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This brings us to the first French shuffle. Despite a semifinals finish in Cologne 2014, the trio of Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, Hovik "KQLY"Tovmassian and Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez departed LDLC to don the darker blue of Titan, where they teamed up with the remaining Ex6tenz and kennyS. SmithZz and NBK would rejoin shox and add Vincent "Happy" Cervoni Schopenhauer and Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey on LDLC. Much like how Titan won a DreamHack Invitational after the team formed under their new banner, this new team also came out the gate and won a DreamHack Invitational, beating LDLC in the grand finals to make a statement. Things were looking good for Titan again.





Until KQLY got his VAC ban two months later.





KQLY took to Facebook to tell the CS:GO world that the ban was legit. He had used cheats for a week prior to joining Titan, citing a temptation to see how cheats could be utilized in public servers and matchmaking. Titan quickly made the decision to drop KQLY from the team, also drafting a section in the press release to air grievances with Valve’s decision to disqualify Titan from DreamHack Winter 2014. To make matters worse for Titan, they were forced to watch as their former members, now with LDLC, lifted the championship trophy in Jönköping.





Out of the darkness emerged a new light as Source legend and former VeryGames player Cedric "RpK" Guipouy came out of retirement to join up with Titan. Again, they achieved early success immediately after the move, finishing second to NiP at Assembly Winter 2015, advancing to the grand finals on a dominant 16-0 win against the former PENTA lineup on Inferno.





Photo via Titan





Unfortunately for Titan, they were never able to pull themselves out of this demoralizing pattern. The cycle of changing the roster only to fall early in the next Major would continue for the rest of their days.





After adding RpK, they went 0-2 at Katowice 2015, with Ex6tenz and apEX playing poorly in both losses to EnVyUs and PENTA. After Katowice, they made a trade with EnVy, adding shox and SmithZz and sending off kennyS and apEX. But at Cologne 2015, they failed to make playoffs again as they ended their time there with a shocking loss to Renegades, allowing Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill to run wild all over Mirage. Then they cut Maniac and brought back ScreaM, only to bomb out of their next major, DreamHack Cluj-Napoca. Despite an early group stage win against NiP, they would meet NiP again in an elimination series, which culminated in a 16-1 rout by the Ninjas on Dust2 to send Titan home early.





Two months later, Titan founder and CEO Damien Grust announced on the team’s website that Titan would be closing its doors. According to Grust, Titan had new sponsorships and even a League of Legends LCS team acquisition prepared for 2014, but the KQLY ban resulted in many of these sponsors backing out, slashing the available budget for the brand. Grust himself reinvested to keep Titan afloat for one more year, but the costs were too high.









While the downfall of Titan was not caused by repeated failure at the CS:GO majors, that continuous disappointment did little to pull the organization out of its tailspin. Not one, not two, but five different appearances at the pinnacle of CS success with little to nothing to show for it. They were an organization marred by failure and cheating, and it cost them. To add insult to injury, many of their former players won major titles while Titan fell.