TALON drop CS roster

7-3-2025 12:47

The organization described the move as a "break from competing in CS2."

TALON's squad signed in August 2024

Hong Kong organization TALON has announced it is dropping its entire CS roster, parting ways with their current squad "immediately."

In a statement released to X, TALON said the decision was a "strategic move." "This follows careful consideration of our organization's ability to put our players in the best position to participate in all available competitions needed in particular for VRS," the statement read.

The news comes just days after TALON were replaced at MESA Asian Masters by HOTU, with TALON player Christian "⁠ADDICT⁠" Pendleton claiming it was because the team's "flights weren't organized in advance."

TALON's squad originally signed with the organization in 2024, mixing a sprinkling of European influence with an Oceanic core to try and qualify for Perfect World Shanghai Major and develop "Asian-Pacific-based CS," according to the CEO.

Talon confirm re-entry into Counter-Strike with AZR-led team

The team achieved nothing of note during their short tenure, failing to qualify for Perfect World Shanghai Major and achieving little when participating in lower-tier competition in Europe's online scene, which is where most of their HLTV-recorded maps were accrued.

Recently the squad made two changes in an attempt to improve their fortunes, dropping Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward and Miłosz "⁠mhL⁠" Knasiak in favor of Liam "⁠malta⁠" Schembri and Euan "⁠sterling⁠" Moore, but now find themselves without an organization.

TALON were:

Christian "⁠ADDICT⁠" Pendleton
Jared "⁠hazr⁠" O'Bree
Corey "⁠nettik⁠" Browne
Liam "⁠malta⁠" Schembri
Euan "⁠sterling⁠" Moore

Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic (coach)

Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward (benched)
Miłosz "⁠mhL⁠" Knasiak (benched)

rip au cs

2025-03-07 12:48

115

7 replies

NETTIK MY BELOVED There has to be some manuka honey billionare out there willing to give nettik, sterling, and addict a salary. The last time NZ had a legit core of players was fucking parallax. It's time.

2025-03-07 12:55

6 replies

I would like to see nettik sterling addict MisteM SaVage or Texta C: T.c.

2025-03-07 12:58

2 replies

savage1337

2025-03-07 14:56

Ben savage the goat

2025-03-07 15:18

wahs we need you back

2025-03-07 13:07

Bring back zewsy and ofnu (true saviors of kiwi cs)

2025-03-07 13:13

flyquest should just sign nettik, the rest have no business playing in T2

2025-03-07 13:29

This is what happens when you bench AZR

1 reply

Oh well they sucked ass and didn’t really do shit anyway. Only good players were nettik/kitten and mhl who isn’t even fuckin Australian

2025-03-07 17:38

Didnt they just sign 2 Players not even 2 weeks ago? Wtf is this

nah, they're just standing in that was until now

2025-03-07 13:17

sad

not even few months lmfao

2025-03-07 12:49

free nettik

I hope a decent tier 2-3 team picks up djL as their coach, his time on NIP doesn't count fyi

2025-03-07 12:50

They didnt consider actually building a roster.. Thats worth anything..?

2025-03-07 12:51

Nothing of value was lost

No sticker money no party

2025-03-07 12:52

azr destroying another roster feels like sprout all over again XD

Let's be real that sprout roster was already fucked before azr

2025-03-07 15:05

nettik to FlyQuest make it happen

2025-03-07 12:53

bruh what they just signed sterling i was so excited((

2025-03-07 12:54

-Liazz +nettik

three other AU teams just bombed out of the EPL closed qualifier with two wins in total, I doubt this squad would've been able to do much damage

as bad as Australian CS is, Talon roster is by far the second best roster Australian roster. in fact if this roster would compete in Europe instead of Australia I would see them as a CCT playoff participant frequently edit: I know, they played some matches in Europe and had terrible results, but after acclimating I think the roster is definitely a solid tier 2 team

You saw arguably the 5th and 6th best AU team bomb out (one with a roster change literally 3 weeks ago) and thing this represents the whole region? You are talking about only really one team with professional salaries and infrastructure.

2025-03-07 14:15

3 replies

Well, I had figured it would've been the 3 best teams that qualified for the event

2025-03-07 14:37

Aussie scene is a mess, rooster basically destroyed themselves and semper fi and talon weren't in the last ecl season so they were the 2nd and 3rd best teams in the region but weren't playing in anything of importance

2025-03-07 15:07

Not really no, which is part of the reason why TALON are benching their roster now. They missed or skipped a lot of opportunities, and now they are in danger of not even making it to the Oceania MRQ. Assuming the core stays together, this is probably their last chance at getting enough points to make it: hltv.org/events/8311/dfrag-invitational-..

2025-03-07 15:11

Mindfreak and HOUSEBETS are both barely top5 teams in AU. Yes, its a dead region with not the highest level of play but they arent THAT bad

2025-03-07 14:29

Did this roster even achieve anything? I know some people hyped them up.

4 replies

They had some decent runs in quals, almost made the last major

2025-03-07 12:56

They won a single Bo1 at the RMR, they didn't win another map after that. They did qualify for the MESA Asian Master, but they've been pretty quiet other than that.

2025-03-07 15:16

I would say as far as the OCE scene goes that's pretty good since they don't have many events Idk I guess they were just in a very promising spot to make progress but didn't get very many good opportunities

2025-03-08 12:33

Not really, they failed to do anything in Europe and the only notable win they had was a bo1 against flyquest at the rmr

2025-03-07 15:08

not gonna lie I thought mhL was the next superstar talent

Welcome nettik to FlyQuest

-LIAZ +nettik

2025-03-07 13:23

L move

a LoL team dropping their mid ass CS roster part 97

not suprised

2025-03-07 12:57

Lynn Vision killed Grayhound and Talon

2025-03-07 13:01

mhl & nettik to complexity would be an upgrade

Mans cooking

2025-03-07 13:09

I like how you think...

2025-03-07 15:19

NETTIK IS ACTUALLY HIDDEN DONK!!!!!!! others are typical australians i think

2025-03-07 13:12

complexity WAKE UP GUYS ITS TIME!!!.

2025-03-07 13:14

-liaz +nettik pls

RIP kiwi cs, goated cs (;

2025-03-07 13:25

I really don't get what the point is in investing in stuff like this, they clearly needed long-term support for them to improve. I say this while FQ continue to suck ass

2025-03-07 13:26

Am I mistaken or was the MESA tournament practically their only chance to get to the Major? Still confused as to why they wouldn't at least take the chance and go to the airport. Worst case they lost a day, best case they go to an event that can change everything. Am I missing something?

2025-03-07 13:38

5 replies

x.com/addicts_csgo/status/18971981098827.. I believe this is the reason

2025-03-07 13:57

I'm not smart enough to do the math, but would winning this event give them enough points to slip into the MRQ? hltv.org/events/8311/dfrag-invitational-.. They just have to get enough points to beat out the 4th ranked team.

2025-03-07 15:23

It’s possible yeah, rooster and Semper Fi are the only real competition there. And rooster have been playing like shit lately.

2025-03-08 00:27

Yeah, but both of those teams are ranked above ex-TALON so they have to beat them and do it with enough margin to pass them in the rankings.

2025-03-08 04:25

nettik back to roosters? They havevn't been the same since he left

2025-03-09 03:59

Another trash org that sign some cheap tier 35 team and hope them to be in majors magicaly

2025-03-07 14:05

Time heals any wound SPUNJ… this is better for your health… one day you’ll understand

2025-03-07 14:12

VSR really fucked tier 2 teams a lot

2025-03-07 14:17

This time no, potato org forget to book flys for the only event that gave VRS

2025-03-07 14:25

Yeah, but also if you look at their match history, they have played only 7 matches since September last year, which says a lot about the team

2025-03-07 14:33

Come back to Rooster Nettik

2025-03-07 14:24

Only if he has no ambition like the rest of rooster

2025-03-07 15:10

Sad that TALON dropped them so quick. Few more months and they could have some t1 appearance, which could deffinietly show us how much potential those guys had

Damn that was Quick And Kinda unexpected?

2025-03-07 14:35

Nice

noone saw this coming :D.d:D.D:D:.DD:D:D:DD

2025-03-07 14:48

Yeah well this roster was going no where anyway unfortunately, I hope though that mhL and nettik get some other opportunities in EU, they've proved their worth I think, especially nettik looks like one of the best AU prospects in a long time I feel like.

NZ*

2025-03-07 15:21

Ah okay, my bad.

2025-03-07 16:10

lol

2025-03-07 15:09

bruh

Feels bad for AU cs, they are way too distant geographically

2025-03-07 15:22

Mongolia are distant geographically and they still have a top 10 team South Africa are so far away from any other region but they still had multiple players and a coach in T1 Let's stop using geography and population as an excuse Talent matters not geography

2025-03-08 03:13

Mongolia is hella close to a powerhouse of cs - Russia. As well as Kazakhstan and a bunch of other countries. SouthAfrica is known for spending 90% of their games in na. So, Australia is simply more distant and remote

2025-03-08 10:10