TALON pulls out of CS2 weeks before OCE LAN debut

Hong Kong-based organisation TALON has announced it will step back from competitive CS2, leaving its Oceania-based core of Jared "HaZR" O'Bree, Christian "ADDICT" Pendleton, and Corey "nettik" Browne without a sponsor.

The org made the call public on March 7, almost a fortnight after Polish sniper Miłosz "mhL" Knasiak was benched. No replacement was announced at the time, leaving many questioning the team's status—especially after captain Aaron "AZR" Ward and mhL had not played a map for TALON in three months.

"This strategic move 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 squad] have all put in an immense amount of work and their contributions to TALON have not gone unnoticed." As well as the OCE players, coach Daniel "djL" Narancic has also been released.

"[It] was a great experience but unfortunately did not work out in the end," nettik said on X/Twitter. ADDICT echoed his sentiment, saying he "learned a lot from the opportunity."

TALON entered OCE CS with grand plans last August, employing legendary captain AZR to lead the young core and bring them to Europe to participate in bootcamps and tournaments.

After knocking off local squads Rooster and Mindfreak to qualify for the Shanghai Major APAC RMR, TALON fell to Chinese squads Rare Atom and Lynn Vision and missed the big show.

From there, the team sat in limbo; AZR and mhL remained in EU while TALON competed with a series of stand-ins in Australia. Before the org's departure TALON registered a single series in ECL—their peers are already halfway through their campaigns.

Ex-TALON will continue as a core three, with Liam "malta" Schembri and Euan "sterling" Moore (already standing in) remaining with the team. They are still expected to compete at DFRAG Invitational in two weeks and will play out the remainder of ECL.