Thomas “Thomas” Utting is set to make a return to Into the Breach next year, UKCSGO can confirm.
Thomas will return to the team for the Regional Major Ranking tournament for next year’s Major. This was somewhat expected as three players needed to return from the squad which competed at the BLAST Paris Major for Into the Breach to retain their spot in the RMR, and only Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel and Karol “rallen” Rodowicz remained on the active roster. Into the Breach earned an invite spot by finishing in the top 16 at the BLAST Paris Major.
Thomas moved to a substitute position in the summer after the loss of star players Cai “CYPHER” Watson and Sebastian “volt” Malos and a difficult start to life with their replacements. Since stepping down he has played no official fixtures on HLTV, only making a brief substitute appearance with Team 7AM in United21 Season 8 Division 2, likely as a favour to friend James “bevve” Slinn.
Into the Breach owner Sam “SlayTheMinotaur” Macedonio recently called out American organisation Team SoloMid for making an effort to “poach” the RMR spot by signing CRUC1AL and rallen, which would reunite the pair with CYPHER and thus 3 players from the lineup that made the quarter-finals in Paris. CRUC1AL and rallen ended up signing new contracts with the British organisation locking them in for next season instead.
FYI @TSM tried (and failed) to poach both Rallen and Joey to steal our RMR slot.
After a string of mediocre results from their overpaid staff and players, what’s TSM’s solution?
Take a few steps back, focus on sustainability, rebuilding their fan-base and infrastructure,… https://t.co/9K79Igksf7
— Sam Macedonio (@SlayTheMinotaur) December 1, 2023
Into the Breach have suffered a series of misfortunes since the Major, leading them to field 11 different players and 2 coaches. They managed to win CCT East Europe Series 4 and climb back into the HLTV top 40, but stand-in Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro opted to join Fnatic instead – leaving the team again without a permanent in-game leader. They will hope Thomas’ return can give them some solid footing as they look for another dark horse run in the new year.
It should be noted that this does not mean that Thomas is rejoining the team permanently, and the identity of the team’s permanent fifth player is still unknown. Currently, Into the Breach are playing with Tomasz “tomiko” Uroda, on loan from Permitta Esports, but he is not known as an in-game leader like bodyy, Thomas or former loanee Alexey “Qikert” Golubev.
For the RMRs Into the Breach will be:
Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel
Karol “rallen” Rodowicz
Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras
Kevin “misutaaa” Rabier
Thomas “Thomas” Utting
Gustavo “Juve” Alexandre (coach)
