Valorant: Former CSGO pro autimatic joins T1, azk to bench

After a disappointing North American Challengers run, T1 Valorant brought the bench on Keven “AZK” Larivière and decided to bring on former Counter Strike:Global Offensive World Champion Timothy “autimatic” Ta.

The U.S. was part of the first North American organization and roster to win a major in CSGO, winning the ELEAGUE Boston Major with Cloud9 in 2018. He was also on the Gen.G roster of the ESL One: Road to the Rio Crown in the region at the beginning of 2020.

autimatic is the latest CSGO pro to switch to Valorant

North America as a region has seen many of its up and coming CSGO players leave to join the new Riot Games title. Now, as well, many of the established talents are leaving.

Autimatic joins former teammates Kenneth “koosta” Suen and Damian “daps” Steele in Valorant as veterans of the CSGO. The former champion has started competing professionally in Valve’s first-person shooter for over five years, notably playing for TSM, Cloud9, and finishing his final years in the Gen.G game. 

His last event for the organization and the game was Flashpoint Season 2, after which he was added to the transfer list in December and eventually jumped to Valorant.

He will also join fellow major champion and former Cloud9 teammate Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham.

T1 continues transition after Valorant Champions Tour

Along with the addition of automatic is the T1 benching of the AZK. The Canadian only played for T1 since his transition to Valorant and played a number of different agents for the team.

This announcement is also coming off the heels of the organization’s coaching change. T1 dropped Daniel “fRoD” Montaner recently and added sports psychologist David “dd8” to Denis’ position.

T1 will have less than a week to start preparing for the next stage of the Valorant Champions Tour with its new player and coach. The squad had an underwearing performance coming into the first event of the tour, getting knocked out by AndBox in the final open qualifying round. In the event. 

T1 also demonstrated its renewed flexibility by moving players to different agents and roles. While these adjustments did not lead to a top eight Challengers appearance, the recent additions might be what the Valorant team needs to push in stage two.