Team SoloMid, or TSM for short, is a stalwart of the eSports scene in League of Legends. Now, the team is parting ways with the North American professional league LCS and selling its spot for a hefty sum. The buyer is a newcomer team from Canada.
Which team is it about?
- Team SoloMid is one of the most well-known and successful LoL teams in North America. Professionals like WildTurtle, Dyrus, and DoubleLift played here.
- During its active time, TSM managed to win 7 championships in the LCS. In 2022, however, they didn’t even make it to the playoffs.
- At the beginning of 2023, the manager announced that TSM would withdraw from the league and sell the starting spot.
This is what will happen to TSM now: The team will no longer participate in LoL tournaments in the LCS. TSM is selling its “spot” in the LCS. The buyer, in this case, is the relatively new team Shopify Rebellion based in Canada. The LoL team mostly consists of veterans from TSM:
- Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell
- Lee “Bugi” Seong-yeop
- Jason “WildTurtle” Tran
- Jonathan “Chime” Pompinio
As New York Times journalist Kellen Browning now wants to know, the deal is said to have gone through for over 10 million US dollars (via Twitter). This corresponds to about 9.4 million euros.
10 Million for a Spot in the LCS – German Teams Received Even More
A price like this for a spot in the professional league of LoL is quite normal. In the league, teams cannot be promoted or relegated. Only teams with a spot are allowed to participate, and newcomers must acquire a spot.
Accordingly, the “spots” are traded at a high price, even outside North America. The German team Schalke 04, for instance, also sold its spot in the European LEC, at the time for 26.5 million euros.
The team Misfits Gaming based in Berlin also sold its spot a year later. There, the spot supposedly went for about 45 million.
For TSM, however, esports is not over with LoL. While LoL was the most important title, current information suggests that the other divisions of the team, such as for Counter-Strike, will continue to compete.
How well the TSM veterans will perform under the banner of Shopify remains to be seen. So far, WildTurtle and Co. have not played any tournaments under the new leadership.
Meanwhile, in Korea, the professionals have other worries:
LoL: ‘I wish there were no new champs anymore’ World champion considers over 20 heroes useless
