Team SoloMid, the esports organisation better known as TSM (or TSM FTX), has suspended its partnership with the recently-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.
The decision follows FTX's recent bankruptcy, after the exchange platform was hit by £5 billion of withdrawal requests due to rumours about the company's poor financial health.
Following the suspension, TSM is pulling all of its partnered "TSM FTX" branding, including on the likes of merchandise, clothing and banners. Announcing the decision via Twitter, TSM acknowledged that "this process might take some time to complete as some social platforms have made changes to their product features."
"After monitoring the internal situation and discussing internally, we're suspending our partnership with FTX effective immediately," reads TSM's statement. "This means that FTX branding will no longer appear on any of our org, team and player social media profiles, and will also be removed from our player jerseys."
Despite the loss of such a major sponsor, TSM projected confidence going forward, promising further profitability in the years ahead.
"TSM is a strong, profitable and stable organization. We forecast profitability this year, next year and beyond. The current situation with FTX does not affect any part of TSM's operating plan, which was set earlier this year."
TSM and FTX launched their partnership back in June 2021, a deal that saw FTX paying TSM £17.6 million a year in exchange for the organisation adopting the "TSM FTX" branding.
It was a deal that saw FTX's former CEO claiming the similarities between esports and crypto, stating: “Taking a huge industry and then reimagining it in a digital age: that’s sort of what esports are to sports, and it’s sort of what crypto is to investing and to finance.”
But that deal has now run into some supremely rocky waters, following FTX's collapse. The company was plagued with rumours of poor financial health, leading to £5 billion of withdrawal requests from users, prompting the platform's collapse.
That collapse has caused the US Securities and Exchange Commission to look into FTX's activities. Thankfully for TSM however, the company has been able to project confidence - both in its comments dissolving the partnership, as well as immediately after FTX's collapse when they emphasised that the company was "built on a solid foundation," though noted that they were "consulting legal counsel to determine the next best steps to protect our team, staff, fans, and players."
Drama aside - it may be a little while before we see the newly unbranded TSM in action. The organisation isn't sending teams to either the currently-running Valorant Game Changers Championship (running from November 15- 20) nor at Valorant India (November 18-20).
But there's still plenty of Valorant action happening this weekend - and you can follow the action and place your bets on your favourite teams right here on Luckbox. Be sure to sign up to claim your 100% bonus!
