With Draft5, Rush B Media sources say that Triumph will be entering 2021 with an almost completely new lineup, as Alan “Shakezullah” Hardeman will be the last remaining player from Triumph’s team last year. Shakezullah is of course joined by Brendan “bwills” Williams, but seeing as he only played a single event with the team, he is still fairly new.
Both Ryan “ryann” Welsh and Erik “penny” Penny have departed the team in order to make the swap over to Valorant. But it’s not all bad news for Triumph, as following a Rush B Media report that Furia were interested in signing Paytyn “junior” Johnson, Draft5 have now also reported that junior is indeed joining the Brazilian side with a reported buyout of approximately $57,000. While junior was an integral part of Triumph’s success in 2020, the buyout will help the team rebuild going into 2021.
Triumph are showing that they mean business as they are nearing an agreement with Austin “Cooper-” Abadir who is undoubtedly the best free agent AWP in North America at the moment. Cooper- has been teamless since Ze Pug Gods disbanded back in August, but during his time with the team he was able to help them beat Triumph in DreamHack Open Summer 2020 North America and qualify for IEM New York 2020 North America. He even helped Mythic beat New England Whalers in DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 North America.
Joining Cooper- would be Danny “cxzi” Strzelczyk who was most recently playing with Rugratz where he was able to help the team qualify for IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 North America and DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 North America earning an impressive 1.17 HLTV 2.0 Rating in the latter event. Before joining Rugratz, cxzi was a stand-in for Gen.G during ESL Pro League Season 12 North America and while his performance was not spectacular in this event, he did do well enough to earn an offer to travel with the team to Europe for Flashpoint 2, but was unable to due to logistical complications.
Triumph is looking to Wesley “viz” Harris to round out the roster. Viz, who played in MDL Season 35 North America with Incognito, was able to maintain an impressive 1.16 HLTV 2.0 Rating despite the team only managing to finish in 11th place, missing out on both playoffs and relegation. Unfortunately, viz was not able to play in any of the big online events in North America this year and was unable to test himself against any tier 1 opposition as a result. But he does have the benefit of playing with both bwills and cxzi for a chain of events in August with Positive Vibes Only.
Rush B Media reached out to a representative from Triumph Gaming, however they declined to comment.
Triumph’s Roster would now be:
- Alan “Shakezullah” Hardeman
- Brendan “bwills” Williams
- Austin “Cooper-” Abadir
- Danny “cxzi” Strzelczyk
- Wesley “viz” Harris
- Marcos “tacitus” Castilho (Coach)
