TSM drop Rocket League team on eve of Promotion Playoff, PUBG roster also released

Team SoloMid has dropped their PUBG and Rocket League roster with immediate effect. The timing is notable as the latter is due to play in tomorrow's European Promotion Playoffs in a bid to retain their place in the Rocket League Championship Series.

In a statement, they wished their former players all the best while making mention of the "great challenges and difficulties" that both teams have faced in recent months.

Three of the five players that make up the PUBG roster will be retained as content creators, hinting that uncertainty around PUBG esports, which has had problems providing financial viability for teams and leading to exits from tier 1 sports organisations, as the overriding factor in TSM's withdrawal from the game.

Remco "remkoe" den Boer, who will now be playing under the ex-TSM banner for tomorrow's RLCS Season 9 European Promotion Playoff, took to Twitter to clear up questions around TSM's peculiar timing stating that his former organisation had told them of their plans week before, with tomorrow's result having no impact on the decision.

"Today's announcement won't affect our promos considering we have known about this for weeks[...] performance was the main reason but I'm doubtful we would've been under the TSM banner going into 2021 unless we were top 2 world"

The former TSM Rocket League roster has performed poorly this season, winning just two games during the regular season and finding themselves in a relegation battle.

They enter the Promotion Playoffs needing two wins to secure their place in the next seasons RLCS - the top division of Rocket League esports.

• Read more: RLCS Season 9 Promotion Playoffs: Predictions, Schedule, Format, Teams, How-To Watch

Remkoe believes that TSM is "unlikely to return to Rocket League soon" believing that they would only return to Rocket League "if the league or game changed itself" with the exception being if they could buy out a top-tier North American team.

TSM has expressed a desire to return to both PUBG and Rocket League in their announcement that they are "exploring our opportunities within both scenes, and plan to re-enter them at a later date".

Team SoloMid has been involved in Rocket League since 2019 when they acquired the We Dem Girlz roster in January of 2019, while their PUGB roster goes back to 2017.