TSM FTX announced that Matthew “Wardell” Yu has stepped down from their VALORANT team, effective immediately, in a Twitter post on Wednesday. According to the team, Wardell decision stems from his desire not to move to Texas with the everyone else.
Today, we mutually parted ways with @WARDELL416.
He's decided not to move to Texas with the rest of the team and has therefore chosen to step down.
Matt has been an important part of TSM from the beginning, and we wish him nothing but success in his future endeavors. pic.twitter.com/6NUheMRtWi
— TSM (@TSM) March 23, 2022
Wardell has been a rock for TSM’s VALORANT team since he signed alongside the entire mouseSpaz roster in May of 2020. The Jett main is currently the rank 10 player on the North American VALORANT ladder, is in the top 2% of Kill/Death ratio in competitive VALORANT and is sitting at a 1.38 K/D according to tracker.gg.
Despite his personal performance, success in VALORANT has eluded the venerable, North American esports organization. The furthest any iteration of TSM has gone in the VALORANT Champions Tour is making it through the group stage of VCT 2021 North America Stage 3 Challengers 2. They were eliminated from the tournament in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite high hopes for the 2022 season, the team has once again underperformed. TSM did not make it through the first or second open qualifiers to even reach the VALORANT Champions Tour 2022: North America Stage 1 Challengers.
However, TSM kept busy during since then by playing in independent tournaments. They did defeat 100 Thieves, a Challengers level team, in the Knights Arena Monthly Gauntlet 2022: February, taking the tournament in a 2-1 victory.
While the team has not signed a replacement yet, Johann “seven” Hernandez stood in for Wardell during the Knights Arena Monthly Gauntlet 2022: February.
With Wardell’s departure, only Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik remains from the original roster. The rest of the roster is made up of Aleko “Aleko” Gabuniya, Corey “corey” Nigra and Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo.
