TSM (esports)


TSM is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was co-founded in September 2009 by the brothers of Andy "Reginald" Dinh and Dan Dinh. TSM currently fields players in Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Fortnite, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Rocket League, Guilty Gear Strive, Super Smash Bros., Halo Infinite, and The Finals.
TSM's League of Legends team won seven of the total sixteen splits of North America's League of Legends Championship Series.

History

Before entering esports, the origin of Team SoloMid traces back to September 2009, when Andy "Reginald" Dinh and his brother Dan Dinh created a blog, which became SoloMid.net, during their college years providing written guides for the game League of Legends. The Dinh brothers were both part of a League of Legends clan called All or Nothing during the game's beta testing, which later rebranded to SoloMid. A small group of players that represented the SoloMid.net community would become the original TSM team: SaintVicious, Chaox, TheOddOne, Locodoco, and Reginald. Team SoloMid was officially created in January 2011. Later that year, Riot Games launched the first season of what would become the League Championship Series. By then, both SaintVicious and Locodoco had left the team, and TheRainMan and Xpecial had replaced them to complete TSM's roster of the first season. The same year, Jack Etienne had become the general manager for the team.
In 2013, Reginald left the team to run the TSM business full time.
In 2014, TSM expanded into Hearthstone esports by signing MaSsan, Trump, and Kripparrian. The organization expanded into two more esports titles in 2015, acquiring the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster of Team Dignitas and its first Super Smash Bros. player, Leffen. TSM found success across multiple titles that year. Their League of Legends team won the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship for the first time, and their CS:GO division won multiple international tournaments as well. However, despite their successes, TSM dropped their CS:GO team completely by the end of the year.
In March 2016, they established their Vainglory division after acquiring the team Alliance. Later that year, in late July, Team SoloMid signed an Overwatch team. However, two weeks later, it dropped the team after allegations arose in regards to some of its players cheating in CS:GO. In September 2016, TSM, along with six other North American esports organizations, established the Professional Esports Association, a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league.
In May 2017, TSM had also established a division in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
On June 16, 2019, TSM acquired the former roster of the Rainbow Six: Siege Pro League team Excelerate Gaming along with popular streamer, Jason "Beaulo" Doty. They started competition in the Pro League in Season 10, on the same day.
By July 2020, TSM had teams competing across 10 games. They also fielded two simultaneous rosters in three of them: Fortnite, Apex Legends, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The first roster was one that competes in tournaments to win, while the second one was more akin to typical streamers who typically create collaborative content within a shared gaming house.
On May 22, 2020, TSM announced their move into the Valorant scene, with their first official roster consisting of Hazed, Drone, Wardell, Cutler, and Subroza. According to Subroza, the transition for most players on the team was easy coming from a CSGO background.
On August 27, 2020, TSM announced their signing of chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura is the second chess player to be sponsored by an esports organization.
In December 2020, Team SoloMid was worth $410 million. The same month the revenue of Team SoloMid was estimated $45 million.
On June 4, 2021, TSM announced a 10-year $210 million naming rights deal with Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX, officially changing their name to Team SoloMid FTX. Also in June 2021, Erik Marino, co-founder of the brand Rocksmith, joined TSM as vice president of apparel.
On January 26, 2022, TSM announced on their Twitter page that they will acquire Team Undying's roster and will venture into the DotA 2 scene. Team Undying consisted of Timado, Bryle, SabeRLight-, MoonMeander and DuBu, and currently competing in the NA region. They won the Dota Pro Circuit NA 2021/2022 Tour 1 Regional finals against Evil Geniuses.
In late 2021, several employees and players of TSM publicly accused Reginald of workplace bullying, including verbal abuse; similar accusations had arisen as early as 2011. TSM and Riot Games, the game developer of League of Legends, both launched their own investigations into the accusations as a result. Following the investigations, Riot Games found Dinh guilty of disparaging and bullying behavior and TSM was fined $75,000, with Dinh being ordered to complete sensitivity and executive training. TSM meanwhile found that their CEO had committed "no unlawful conduct".
On November 16, 2022, TSM announced they had dropped the "FTX" branding and ended their agreement with FTX early after FTX declared bankruptcy amid scandal.
On May 6, 2024, the Esports World Cup Foundation, funded by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and organizers of the Esports World Cup tournament series, announced the 30 organizations who would make up the Club Support Program, with TSM being one of them. This program gives teams a one-time six-figure stipend if an organization is willing to enter new esports as well as additional funding each year if they drive viewership and fan engagement to the Esports World Cup.

Current divisions

''Super Smash Bros.''

In April 2015, TSM signed Super Smash Bros. Melee player Leffen as their first fighting game player.
On August 1, 2015, TSM announced the signing of ZeRo to their Super Smash Bros. division. ZeRo would go on to achieve 56 straight tournament wins in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a feat recorded in the Guinness World Records. On January 12, 2018, ZeRo announced his retirement from the Super Smash Bros. competitive scene due to his lack of motivation to go further with his career, and on November 8, 2018, TSM announced that ZeRo had departed from the team.
In August 2018, Leffen won Evo 2018, defeating Armada 3–0 in the grand finals to claim the trophy.
Gavin "Tweek" Demspey also joined TSM in 2019. Tweek has won multiple majors and supermajors including Smash Ultimate Summit 3 and Let's Make Big Moves 2023. Tweek parted ways with TSM on February 28, 2023. On November 7th, 2025, he rejoined TSM.

''Rocket League''

Team SoloMid returned to Rocket League with the acquisition of the Hey Bro team on January 24, 2024, after they had released their roster back on April 11, 2020. The roster consists of Gwil "creamz" Muir, Stephen "hockE" Hoelbinger and Dylan "Wahvey" Thanus. They are currently competing in the North American region in RLCS.

''Halo Infinite''

On January 31, 2025, Team SoloMid announced through various social media that they had signed a Halo Infinite roster. The roster consisted of the players Roman "Druk" Nasirudin, Hunter "Taulek" Davis, Michael "SoulSnipe" Girgis, and Youssef "Cherished" Shaaban with coach "Trey". Additionally TSM officially partnered with the Halo Championship Series for Year 4 of Halo Infinite professional competition taking place during 2025.
After a disappointing finish at HCS Arlington 2025, on May 2, 2025, TSM dropped "Cherished" and replaced him with Emmanuel "Manny" Lombert to complete their roster.

Former divisions

''PUBG: Battlegrounds''

On May 9, 2024, as part of TSM's announcement video stating that they were one of the members of the Esports World Cup Foundation Club Support Program, the organization announced its return to PUBG: Battlegrounds by signing the Shoot To Kill roster, who qualified for the PUBG Global Series for seasons 3 and 4. TSM had previously been involved in PUBG: Battlegrounds esports from 2017, when the game was known as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, to 2022, including rosters in Europe and North America.
On January 15, 2025, TSM announced they were parting ways with their PUBG roster.

''Overwatch''

Team SoloMid acquired an Overwatch team on July 22, 2016. The original team consisted of Jake "torkTJO" Lepoff, Nicolas "NicolasTJO" Aubin, Joey "jkw" Wavering, Joe "Joemeister" Gramano, Jackson "Shake" Kaplan, and Anthony "harbleu" Ballo. On August 8, 2016, the whole TSM squad transferred to compLexity Gaming. Team SoloMid lost on Overwatch Open Tournament and BTS Overwatch Cup in 2016, and dropped their roster and Overwatch altogether on May 5, 2017.
In May 2024, TSM returned to Overwatch esports for the North American FACEIT League, signing seven players, three coaches, and two analysts, which were part of Timeless before the organization left Overwatch.
In October 2024, TSM announced they were parting ways with their Overwatch roster

''Call of Duty''

Team SoloMid acquired a team to compete at 2016 CoD: World League in February 2016. The team, which took less than 2 weeks to assemble, consisted of Cole "ColeChan" Chancey, Jonathan "Pacman" Tucker, Jordan "ProoFy" Cannon, and Jamal "Whea7s" Lee. On July 7, 2016, TSM announced their withdrawal from CoD, and that the team would be going separate ways. This is due to the team's performance in the World League Stage 2. The team finished near the bottom of their rankings.

''League of Legends''

The League of Legends division of TSM was officially established in January 2011. The team's early roster consisted of players Saintvicious, Chaox, TheOddOne, Locodoco, and Reginald himself. They participated in the Season One World Championship later that year, securing a third place finish. In the years that followed, TSM continued to evolve, making roster changes and competing in various tournaments and leagues. They won the 2011 MLG Providence League of Legends tournament and achieved success in several other events. In the Season Two World Championship, Team SoloMid reached to the quarterfinals. TSM's fortunes fluctuated in the subsequent years, but in 2013, they became the inaugural North American League of Legends Championship Series champions. They maintained their status as a top team in North America, with appearances in multiple World Championships. In late 2013, TSM signed Danish mid laner Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg. While they struggled to make significant progress in international events, TSM remained dominant in North America, securing multiple NA LCS titles during this period. In 2018, TSM went through a rebuilding phase with roster changes but encountered challenges. They missed the World Championship for two consecutive years, in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, TSM experienced a resurgence, winning their seventh LCS title. However, their performance at the 2020 World Championship was underwhelming as they failed to advance from the group stage. The organization saw a major overhaul in 2021, with a new roster and Bjergsen transitioning from player to head coach. Subsequent years brought more roster changes and adjustments, but TSM struggled. They went through multiple head coaches, including Bjergsen, and tried various players in different roles. In 2023, TSM decided to exit the LCS and sold their franchise slot.