Team SoloMid is actually the strongest LoL team in the USA and the largest esports organization in the world. The team has won 7 national championship titles, the last one in the summer of 2020. In the Spring Split 2022 of League of Legends, nothing is going well for TSM. With 1-8, TSM is in last place in the LCS. The team’s head, Reginald, now explains under pressure: they were not stingy, but spent a lot of money on young players. However, the plans went awry.
This is the situation:
- TSM is “actually” the best LoL team in the USA and the largest esports organization in the world. They have won 7 championship titles, the last one just in summer 2020.
- However, 2022 is not going well at all. They have signed young players from China, none of whom had been heard of before, and are relying on talents who have not achieved anything yet, like Spica (20, Jungle) or Tactical (21, ADC).
- Now TSM is in last place in the US league LCS. TSM is struggling with a 1-8 score.
- Furthermore, TSM lost not only its strong players but also everyone who had a say in the club. Influencers like Myth and Doublelift left. The management team around Parth and Leena Xu has forgotten the club. The LoL legend Bjergsen is gone. Only head Reginald remains, and he is in trouble with Riot Games: They are investigating whether the allegations are true that he has behaved poorly repeatedly.
Plan A: “Definitely keep Bjergsen” went wrong
How did this happen? The team is currently being accused by fans that people in management have put together a roster that they themselves no longer want to work with. Especially Parth “Parth” Naidu, the former general manager, is being accused, who left TSM on January 30.
However, Leena Xu, the former president of TSM, explained the problem. She had left TSM on November 20.
As Leena Xu explains, it was the top priority for her and Parth during the preparation for the 2022 season to do everything possible to secure mid-laner Bjergsen (26). He had been TSM’s most important player for years, then retired after a disastrous World Championship in 2020 and worked as head coach in 2021. The Dane wanted to return to professional play in 2022, and the management wanted that to be with TSM.
However, this plan failed and Bjergsen moved to Team Liquid.
Plan B: Buy 3 expensive stars you know – Boss declines
This was the Plan B: As Leena Xu explains, she and Parth wanted to assemble an LoL roster of experienced North American stars as Plan B:
- Mid-laner Jensen (27) – he would have been free at Team Liquid since Bjergsen was moving there
- ADC Doublelift (28) – like Bjergsen a legend of TSM, who wanted to play professionally again in 2022
- Vulcan (22) – a relatively young Canadian support who is regarded as one of the best players of his position in North America
According to Xu, however, the head of TSM, Reginald, rejected this suggestion. He was “not worth the price”; instead, they focused entirely on youth.
The statements suggest that Reginald was “too stingy” to bring in top players.
You can’t blame Parth: he never wanted the current roster of TSM.
Plan C: Take the risk, focus entirely on young talents – Currently going poorly
This is what Reginald says: The controversial owner of TSM, Reginald, cannot let this stand. He announces on reddit that they put $5 million into the current roster. That would have been about what Doublelift/Jensen/Vulcan cost.
But they believed:
- The “veteran” roster might have played more consistently, but would not have been able to dominate the league. They might have made it to the top 4. But TSM wanted to build for 3 years, not just for one. According to Parth, Reginald had also opposed the “safe option”.
- Therefore, they invested their money in rookies to plan for years and flew in and tested 20 players
According to TSM, Reginald deliberately did not want to take the “safe bet”, but took the riskier bet and that has not paid off now.
Does TSM have a money problem? In the discussion about the roster of TSM, it also becomes clear why Leena Xu left TSM. She said that TSM views esports in LoL critically because it does not generate enough revenue. Therefore, TSM wants to turn to other areas, other esports games, and mobile games.
This was one of the reasons she left TSM and why TSM no longer suited her.
However, TSM should not actually have a money problem: The largest LoL team in the world sells its name for $210 million to a crypto exchange – Riot says: No.
TSM is ramping up its rebuilding
Behind this: The roster of TSM seems already challenging, especially since they have a 24-year-old veteran from South Korea, Huni, on the team, who is certainly expensive but does not fit into a “three-year project” at all. The 21-year-old ADC Tactical has also already had several opportunities to break through as a key player but has not been able to utilize them.
Moreover, TSM has given up two German players, Broken Blade (22) and PowerOfEvil (24), over the past few years whom they could have used well in 2022.
If TSM set out to find the hottest talents in the world for 2022, they probably did not have much success. How it can be done better is currently shown by Cloud9. They also attempted a radical overhaul with young Asians for 2022. Their new 18-year-old South Korean is developing into a mega star, while things look quite different at TSM. But perhaps TSM’s long-term plan will still work out:
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