The cat is finally out of the bag: Snip3down has announced that he will be leaving the Apex Legends team to focus on his Halo career. This came after the end of the Apex Legends Global Series Round 4 of Split 1 Pro League. TSM was placed 2nd in the fourth matchup Group A vs Group D, 5 points short off first runner up, team Esports Arena.
Emotional doesn’t even begin to describe it, but I’m very thankful of everything I’ve been a part of. Happy to have ended with 2nd place and get some much needed points for the squad. Love these guys to death, thank you for the support
— TSM FTX Snip3down (@Snip3down) November 22, 2021
Snip3down was a professional Halo player, previously last played for Team Mantra. He had a very long relationship with Halo and is well known in the Halo community having participated in many Halo events including the 2008 MLG National Championship and the Fall 2016 HCS Pro League Finals. He has a long string of experience having played across several Halo series from Halo 3 all the way to Halo 5: Guardians. Throughout his endeavour, he has achieved much success among big teams such as Evil Geniuses, Envy and Team Reciprocity.
Halo Infinite
XBox Game Studios has recently released Halo Infinite which is considered as the sixth version of the Halo Series. It is a follow up campaign of Master Chief journey after Halo 5: Guardian which came out in 2015. Halo Infinite is available on PC and Xbox consoles and the multiplayer section of the game is free to play. The game is due to launch on 8 December 2021 and the game is on beta since 15 November 2021 to commemorate Xbox’s 20th anniversary and the Halo franchise.
Halo Infinite is a first person shooter which includes a wide variety of weapons and vehicles. In contrast to Apex Legends, it is a multiplayer game with many different modes such as Deathmatch, Capture the Flag which is available in a standard 4v4. It also has a Big Team Battle which sets out a 12v12 large map setting. Unlike a Battle Royale setting, players are respawn automatically and starts off at the team’s base. Each team score points by completing objectives or eliminate any opponents. There are also many types of abilities such as Grapple and Thruster which can be equipped from item pickups.
The emergent of Halo Infinite is likely bring back the excitement of fast paced multiplayer series after Battle Royale games have been widely dominating the market for the past 2 years. Call of Duty is a direct rival to Halo with its multiplayer equivalent but Activision has changed it focus towards Battle Royale every since they launched Warzone. This would mean that its Call of Duty league was somewhat underwhelming in the coming years. With the eSports scene reliving the hype from Halo, Call of Duty could also gain some traction as well.
What it means for TSM
After completing the Apex Legends Global Series Round 4 of the first playoffs, Snip3down appears distraught and was somewhat emotional which might seems to be his last Apex Legends game with the TSM team. Although he wanted to support TSM until they have found a replacement, it seemed that he would not be able to commit as there were a set of Halo tournaments lined up and the FACEIT Halo tournament coincidentally clashed with the ALGS. It is likely he will have to leave ImperialHal and Reps who have been permanent in the TSM roster thus far.
As seen on the FACEIT website. He’s back. pic.twitter.com/e20GbZdtjn
— NoobCombo.com (@NoobComboCom) November 19, 2021
It will be significantly difficult for Snip3down to remain with TSM unless they could rope in three suitable teammates for the competition. TSM was neither prominent in the Halo scene and it could be possible that Snip3down will need to move to a Halo professional organisation. Rumours suggest that he might be joining FaZe who are preparing to recruit former pros for the upcoming LAN event at HCS Raleigh. Former Call of Duty champion, Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper will be another hot contender for the role.
With Snip3down’s impending departure, TSM would need another player to fill in their 3rd vacancy. This meant that they could be looking for a potential controller player to fill in the gap. TSM would likely find a controller player to compliment the team’s dynamics which ImperialHal and Reps are main Mouse and Keyboard players, although ImperialHal has mentioned that he would switch to controller if necessary.
While TSM finds a potential fit for the Apex Legends squad, rumours suggest that Verhulst or Genburten could be highly probable to join the team. Verhulst has been playing for Team Intel under Esports Arena and have achieved much success placing first runner ups for several Esport Arena series in Season 3. Another hopeful, Genburten could also be a favourite as he has alot of potential and is considered one of the top controller players in Apex Legends. However, this would mean that he has to move over to North America to further his career while he has not achieved much success as he would like in Oceania region. Both of these players have been playing with TSM in ranked so there might be some connection. Another player theorised by a reddit fan mentioned that Rogue could also be joining given that he hinted his return to competitive Apex.
Potential players
- GDolphn
- Rogue
- Verhulst
- Genburten
Perhaps TSM might even want to consider a reserve player for the sake of TSM’s future in Apex Legends. As much uncertainty holds for TSM, they would not have much time to prepare for their imminent Round 6, Group B vs Group D scheduled on 5 December 2021.