We’ve been waiting for a while, but the news all of Smash had anticipated finally broke today as William ‘Leffen’ Hjelte signed with Team SoloMid, ending months of speculation. The move unites arguably the most in-form European Smasher and one of the oldest, biggest and best eSports organisations, as well as representing a new era for TSM, who’ve branched out once again, after establishing themselves as LoL royalty.

We managed to grab a quick word with the man of the moment to congratulate him, ask what appealed to him about TSM, and if his focus was Melee, or also Smash 4. “I said back at MLG Anaheim in 2014 that I wanted to be the best, and such, I should have the best sponsor,” Leffen told ESH. “I believe I've found what I was looking for, TSM is a perfect fit for me and I can't wait to become even better with their support! [I’ll be] focusing on Melee for now, looking to branch out into other fighting games, like USF4 or GGXrd, not Smash4”.

“I have always been a fan of Smash and I'm really excited to have an up and coming star under our brand. Everyone at TSM has watched Leffen's matches at Apex and we all impressed by his performance. He's a great player that's motivated to win and he will fit right in under the TSM tag! ” – Andy “Reginald” Dinh

Long regarded as one of the big three in Europe alongside Alliance’s Adam ‘Armada’ Lindgren and Mustafa ‘Ice’ Akcakaya, Leffen has attracted the interest of a number of organisations since his breakout performances on both sides of the Atlantic in 2014. Signing with TSM brings another of the truly massive organisations into the scene with Cloud 9, Evil Geniuses and Alliance already having Smashers on board, and represents good news for Leffen and European Smash as a whole.

After Apex 2015 set new standards for both tournament entrants and tournament drama, the summer is looking like it could be another level of (hopefully positive) excitement again for Smash, with Evo 2015 on course to break the 2000 entrants mark for Melee. Leffen is currently a significant figure in both official Smash games, but his eyes will be firmly on the prize in Melee when it comes to that tournament, and with top-level support this could finally be the time for a new name to win a major.

Reginald quote and image courtesy of TSM on Facebook