THUNDER dOWNUNDER is no more. With the departure of three players this season, including figurehead Alistair "aliStair" Johnston, the existing TdU squad has chosen to usher in a new era as Off Chops.
Eddie "viridian" Azzi broke down the changes in a video posted to X (Twitter) on Oct. 11. Viridian confirmed the new five that will line up for Off Chops at Logitech G Pro Series and the DFRAG Invitational last chance qualifier.
THUNDERdOWNUNDER TEAM UPDATE 🚨
— Eddie Viri (@BowserViri) October 11, 2026
It's no longer thundering, so here's the updates for our NEW branding, upcoming events, AND current roster situation. pic.twitter.com/WBkEIgiTXn
Viridian, Jay "liazz" Tregillgas, and Chris "dexter" Nong will be joined officially by Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai, who has been playing with the existing team since shortly after his OCE LAN return with FlyQuest at HyperX Intel Nationals.
Finalising the roster temporarily is Damon "damyo" Portelli, who has been spotted repping the likes of Ground Zero, Abyssal, and most recently Rooster. Damyo stepped back from the Rooster project shortly after captain Michael "chelleos" Hawkins' now-canceled move to Sashi earlier this week.
"We're not a dead team or anything, we're still focused on both the short-term and long-term, and we'll just see how it goes," viridian said.
TdU's off-season was thrown through a loop as this season has drawn on. After opting out of several Asia-based online qualifiers, the European vultures circled; BC.Game acquired Tyson "asap" Paterson almost a month back, while last week saw Tynan "TjP" Purtell depart the squad for Danish org Sashi.
The loss of a registered core resulted in the IEM Cologne representatives copping a disqualification for this weekend's ANZC Locals Spring, and they'll need to re-qualify for DFRAG Invitational. In all, it's been tumultuous to say the least for a team that was mathematically a chance for the Singapore Major a little over a month ago.
As such, viridian and Off Chops are taking the opportunity to start fresh and focus on the CS in front of them.
"There's been a lot of instability and just like a lot of just news in general for every single day at this point. But yeah, at this point in time, we've just gotta play the events and enjoy the Counter-Strike."
Off Chops will debut on LAN at Logitech G Pro Series this week. Tomorrow, they'll fight for the last spot at DFRAG Invitational.
