The League of Legends team TSM from North America has signed support Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh from China. He has already impressed in his first games for TSM. Now he even reached 1st place in SoloQ.
What kind of player is he? SwordArt played in Season 10 for the Chinese team Suning. The team reached the finals of Worlds in 2020 and lost to the winner DAMWON Gaming, who had previously eliminated G2 Esports.
In November 2020, he moved to TSM for the proud transfer fee of 6 million dollars. Meanwhile, SwordArt is also training in the solo leaderboard of the region and has now reached rank 1, with a narrow lead of 39 points over second place.
He achieved this only with support champions like Bard, Alistar, and Pantheon, and a winning rate of impressive 64 % (via OP.gg).
What is so special about SwordArt? The Taiwanese player has made it to Worlds multiple times during his career but has rarely progressed beyond the group stage.
Only last year at the age of 24 did he truly attract attention with Team Suning. However, he is already considered almost at retirement age when it comes to E-sports and LoL.
Additionally, there is a quirky situation surrounding his move to the American team SoloMid. Originally, the also aging Yilang “Doublelift” Peng wanted him desperately by his side. But just before the transfer, he decided to retire.
SwordArt was Doublelift’s desired partner, but he retires first
What happened? The American team SoloMid exited the 2020 World Championship with 0 wins and 6 losses in the group stage. The team was dissatisfied with this result.
The mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg then ended his career, but Doublelift wanted to continue as long as he had a good support player by his side. That was to be SwordArt.
However, the deal was threatened to fall through, and Doublelift also announced his retirement. Only one day later, however, TSM announced SwordArt’s transfer. Nevertheless, the former AD carry of TSM decided not to return.
TSM starts unevenly, but SwordArt impresses
How is SwordArt performing for TSM? In America, the new Lock In tournament of the LCS started last weekend. Team SoloMid achieved 2 wins and 1 loss in their group and started moderately:
- They lost the opening match against 100 Thieves decisively, getting only one kill and being killed 8 times. They lost after just 26 minutes.
- In the following matches, TSM performed somewhat stronger, with the duel against CLG being very balanced for long periods.
SwordArt had mostly good games, but was often very aggressive in his gameplay, which not all his teammates could match. However, he was a key player against CLG while playing Leona.
Many roster changes at TSM: Generally, Team SoloMid has made significant changes for the new season:
- The German player PowerOfEvil replaced Bjergsen in the mid lane
- Huni moved as the new top laner to TSM. The former top laner Broken Blade went to Schalke 04
- Lost from the academy team took over the role of AD carry
- Only the jungler Spica remained from the old team
How TSM ultimately performs with the new roster will be shown in the coming weeks. These will also be very exciting for the American LCS. They have changed their entire schedule to become more competitive compared to other regions:
Europe & Asia are too strong in LoL – That’s why America is changing its tournament format
