T1 Esports completed their starting lineup for their first VALORANT team Wednesday by signing former Cloud9 Counter-Strike world champion Tyler “Skadoodle/Ska” Latham.
Ska rejoins former Counter-Strike iBUYPOWER teammates Brax and AZK, the trio made a name for themselves as the fastest-rising team in the North American region. In 2015, journalist Richard Lewis broke a story on the team, citing that they had match-fixed and lost in a tournament match a year prior in August.
Counter-Strike developer, Valve, indefinitely banned all of the players except Ska from pro play for their involvement in the scandal. It was known that Ska declined to share in the profit from their match fixing.
Ska went on to become a key player in the Cloud9 CS:GO roster who went on to become the first North American team to win a CS:GO major championship at the ELEAGUE Major, Boston 2018.
“Ska brings a championship pedigree to our VALORANT roster on top of an unquenchable competitive drive,” T1 CEO Joe Marsh said. “What impressed me most about Ska during our conversations was his desire to be on a championship-caliber team and organization.”
Brax and AZK were the first two players signed to the T1 roster and the org, T1 have also announced their intention to run an academy team under their starting lineup in North America as well as a second professional Valorant team that will play in the South Korean region.