Party Astronauts roster blows up amid social media controversy

North American Counter-Strike 2 team Party Astronauts has ceased to exist due to a conflict between roster members. This became known from statements by the players and coach on the social media X, in which they mutually accused each other of blowing up the team.

Coach Tommy "Axed" Ryan was the first to speak out:

Yesterday, I made the easy decision to leave Party Astronauts.

I write this as disappointed as anyone could ever be. I joined Party Astronauts last month to join in the hunt to qualify for my first major, and unfortunately that mission has failed. There was a severe lack of internal trust, communication, and respect. I will not operate in a team where erratic and irrational roster decisions are made without the consultation of the coach and players. Your lack of professionalism has cost you the Blast Open Qualifiers, IEM Dallas Closed, PGL, Fragadelphia, ECL, and your VRS Core.

You dug your own grave.

Axed did not specify who exactly he was addressing, but Justin "FaNg⁠" Coakley soon published his own post:

Speaking for Party Astronauts.

We took a chance on you, and gave you an opportunity, when no one else would. And it’s a shame that a person who we thought came in with good intentions, could single handedly blindside us, a team that has been working diligently to build towards CS achievements, and in the process destroy players reputations and hard work.

Our team IS built on communication, but you did very little to provide any guidance, and if by irrational and erratic decisions, you mean actually DEVELOPING players CS2 skills or gameplay as a team, then we stand by our “behaviour”. What roster “decisions”??? THEY’RE WERE NO ROSTER DECISIONS!!!

This is truly disappointing and disrespectful. You show a true lack of maturity and empathy. The fact that you want to see us in a grave speaks for itself. YOU DUG THE GRAVE.

How you could single handedly destroy individuals efforts and confidence is totally mind boggling. But I guess, now you have shown your true colours.

The public argument continued with a statement from Colby "Walco" Walsh:

Normally I'm a pretty quiet guy online and don't want to waste time with drama but this whole situation blew up more than I thought it would, so I feel I need to give my thoughts and let people decide what they will.

First of all, the team would've 100% survived and thrived had Fang not had an enormous ego or if Ben had taken action to try and deal with it as opposed to letting it go rampant for so long. Tommy and I tried to give our input without over-stepping and taking over the team and while tactically we improved a little bit, attitude and egos did not.

I just want to say that while I disagree with Ben I believe he's a good guy who's just making a terrible decision and now shit has blown up and led to this situation. viz and ogwizard have been nothing but amazing teammates and friends in this short time and they unfortunately had to deal with this as well but should never have been forced into this situation.

Fang in my experience has shown that he is unwilling to work with people who criticize him or don't agree with everything he says and when faced with critique or bad stats he will rage and lash out at people and decide that everything that went wrong in or out of the server is someone else's fault and that he's just simply "doing his best".

This has been a very spicy time since I've been back and was never expecting it to go like this but I just hope Tommy and I's record has shown while not perfect we have always tried our best to be good teammates and friends to everyone we've played with and that we NEVER wanted something like this to happen.

Ben "ben1337" Smith was the last to share his point of view:

Every team has its issues. I’m shocked that it turned out this way and so fast. Like the snap of a finger our roster is gone.

At the end of the day our team had issues about the vision/play style of the team, and we failed as a team to solve those issues. It’s a team game, we all had responsibilities set to achieve what we needed to. If you can’t put aside your differences for the team it’s never gonna function.

It’s sad that it turned out this way. Counter-Strike has been my life and I don't want this to be the end. I look forward to whatever comes next.

Justin [FaNg] and I have spent the last 9 months together and I enjoyed my time with him. I’ve learned a lot from him as a player and got to know him on a personal level. He elevated my game and the team’s game. Justin is a great player and I hope we can team again someday.

Currently, Party Astronauts is one of the ESL Challenger League Season 49 participants – the squad has an 8-2 record in the tournament. Moreover, the team was just one win away from qualifying for Ace North American Masters Spring, which will feature a slot at BLAST Open Lisbon 2025. The roster also recently secured a berth at the closed qualifier for IEM Dallas 2025.

 Party Astronauts' former roster looks as follows:

Ben "⁠ben1337⁠" Smith
Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley
 Bogdan "⁠ogwizard⁠" Savula
Wesley "⁠viz⁠" Harris
Colby "⁠Walco⁠" Walsh

Tommy "⁠Axed⁠" Ryan (coach)

Origin: x.com