Danish Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg (26) is considered the greatest player of League of Legends the USA has ever produced. From 2013 to 2019, he played for the US team SoloMid and became a champion 6 times. Then he retired from LoL and worked as a coach for TSM. In November 2021, he made a return and wanted to make a big comeback with a super team. However, the “Team Liquid” project has failed for now, and the dream of Worlds 2022 seems unattainable.
Who is Bjergsen?
- The Dane Bjergsen is probably the most popular western LoL player overall: He has 1.3 million followers on Twitter. On September 7, a panel of experts elected him as “the best player in LCS history” (via twitter).
- His story is legendary: He grew up in Denmark, was an unhappy boy struggling with depression, played LoL with a group of friends, moved to the distant USA in 2013, and became an immensely popular star in League of Legends over the years.
- His professional life was inseparable from Team SoloMid; he was the franchise player of the huge LoL team. He has won 6 championships. However, his international performance was never that great: After a disastrous Worlds 2019, he ended his professional career at the age of 24. In 2020, he trained TSM.
Bjergsen is an absolute star in LoL in the West:
Team Liquid recruits Bjergsen to build a super team
This was the plan: At the end of 2021, it became clear: The Dane wants to prove himself once again. But despite all efforts from TSM CEO Reginald, he could no longer be retained at Team SoloMid, Bjergsen moved to “Team Liquid”.
There, he replaced his countryman “Jensen” and they built a strong team around him:
- Belgian top-laner Bwipo (25) came over from Fnatic – as there had been issues within the team after difficult Worlds
- In the jungle, experienced player Santorin (25) played alongside the Dane
- Up-and-coming French player Hans Sama (23) was supposed to shine in the bot lane; he came from the top European team Rogue
- The team also included “CoreJJ” (28): The South Korean supporter has long been considered one of the best support players in the USA
Bjergsen competes with the oldest team in the league – competition is 4 years younger
What stood out? Team Liquid had 4 Europeans and one South Korean under contract, all experienced players with big names. No one on the team was born in North America, and for LoL standards, the team was quite old:
- In December 2021, the average age at Team Liquid was 24 – it was the oldest team in the league
- Competitor teams like Evil Geniuses were on average 3.6 years younger – and were betting on young North Americans. EG was the counterpoint to Team Liquid.
It was clear: Team Liquid should compete for the championship, perhaps even save America’s honor at Worlds.
For the future, the team was truly not designed.
Team fails for the second time against Evil Geniuses, a team 4 years younger
How did it go then? Initially, everything went well. The team won the regular season of the LCS in spring with a clear 14-4. However, in the playoffs, things went awry:
- Bjergsen and his teammates lost first 3-2 against 100 Thieves with the German Abbedagge
- then suffered a humiliating 0-3 defeat against Evil Geniuses, a much younger team.
But that was only spring, which does not really count in LoL. In summer, everything would surely get better, right? The opposite was the case.
In the league, they only finished in 3rd place. The “young teams”, 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses won the regular split.
In the playoffs, it went exactly like in spring:
- First, they lost to 100 Thieves 3-2,
- then they had to concede 3-2 to Evil Geniuses. Team Liquid managed to largely remove EG’s star player, ADC Danny, from the game, but it wasn’t enough. Top-laner Impact and mid-laner Jojopyun managed to turn the games around.
Both times, the “super team” failed against the same two teams. Bjergsen’s dream at Worlds 2022 is temporarily dashed.
Good players, but difficult teamwork
What was the issue? From the start, the team lacked consistency. At one moment, they could eliminate top teams of the LCS effortlessly, while at other times, they messed up games against seemingly easy opponents.
In an interview with Dexerto, jungler Santorin explained that they felt the high expectations for the super team:
“You can definitely feel the pressure. There is an expectation that you win the whole thing and that you are a super team and crush everyone. And I think those expectations put the team in a position where you either meet the expectations or you don’t.”
According to Santorin, while the individual players were extremely good, it just didn’t work properly as a team.
Supporter CoreJJ said in an interview with Inven on August 9 that it was difficult to build teamwork since all 5 players had a different perspective on the game.
On Twitter, Bjergsen summarized the season with the words: “My fault. Disappointing year for us.”
What lies behind it: It really seems to be a lesson from the ongoing season that “assembled” teams of star players in LoL do not work, but that it is extremely important for teams to have a hierarchy and follow a shared vision of how they want to view and play LoL.
Like Bjergsen in the USA, the star player in Europe, Perkz, also failed with the idea of assembling a “super team” around him:
