M80, a growing esports organization in North America known for its team in VALORANT Challengers, is eyeing an ambitious expansion into CS2.
The news comes after M80 appointed Sentinels and XSET’s former VALORANT head coach Donald “Syyko” Muir as its VP of esports on June 15. Aside from the project in Riot Games’ tactical shooter, M80 is also investing in Rainbow Six Siege and Rocket League teams, plus the Street Fighter pro EndingWalker.
And Syyko has nothing but big plans for M80’s entry into CS2, which Valve will release worldwide this summer and effectively replace CS:GO.
“In addition to supporting these existing rosters, I have sights set on Counter-Strike 2, and plan to build a world-class roster,” Syyko said in an interview with Dexerto.
Related: CS2: All leaks, and details on Counter-Strike 2
It remains unclear, though, whether M80 is aiming to build a roster mostly consisting of NA players or if it will explore opportunities overseas. M80’s VALORANT roster features four NA players, the Rocket League team is fully NA, but the Rainbow Six lineup is mostly composed of Brazilian players.
Either way, this brings hope for the NA scene in CS esports. Team Liquid, Complexity, and Evil Geniuses are the only big organizations fielding NA rosters at the moment and Cloud9 is currently fielding a roster mostly made up of Russian players. Most of the organizations in the region pivoted to VALORANT esports after its launch in 2020 and never came back to CS.
Apart from M80, TSM has been the only other notable organization in NA teasing to join Valve’s FPS, but there have been no more updates after the organization’s financial struggles became public in March 2023.
Update June 15 7:05pm CT: Syyko’s mission to create the next big Counter-Strike roster is currently underway. The M80 head asked fans to tag their “favorite CS players” who could be a part of the new roster via a June 15 tweet.
