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Team SoloMid (TSM) announced on its social media handles that its jungler Mingyi “Spica” Lu is now an unrestricted free agent, noting that it has released Spica from its League of Legends starting roster. This announcement quickly follows TSM’s defeat at the hands of Evil Geniuses (EG) in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2022 Championship. The team is now heading into the off-season and since it shall not be making it to Worlds 2022, the organization seems to be exploring different options before the start of the next season in 2023.
TSM wrote on Twitter, “As of today Spica is an unrestricted free agent. We intend to continue conversations with Spica, however, he is not prevented from speaking with other teams. Spica made significant contributions to the team over the years and we are grateful to have had him under the TSM banner.”
Spica thanks fans for their support
Following TSM’s announcement, Spica posted on social media, expressing his gratitude. He wrote, “TSM has terminated my contract so I am a free agent effective today. Thanks to all the fans for the 4 years of overwhelming support and I'm excited for what's coming next.”
According to a tweet by TSM's VP of Esports Dominic Kallas, the decision to let go of Spica was made after the two parties could not come to financial terms. He wrote, "We could not come to financial terms. It was an absolute pleasure to work with Spica this year and wish him all the best. Never say never."
Spica has been the anchor for the League of Legends team over the last couple of years as the squad experienced turbulence. He has been in the professional League of Legends scene since 2018. He started off by playing in the LCS Academy for teams like Fox Academy and TSM Academy. He joined TSM’s academy team in 2019 and played in the main roster for four months as an interim jungler.
In August 2019, Spica was unexpectedly called up to the main TSM roster due to dysfunction with its two junglers Jonathan “Grig” Armao and Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham. Spica played for TSM during the final week of LCS 2019 Summer and continued as the starter during the playoffs and the regional finals, where TSM failed to qualify for Worlds 2019.
Spica was made the jungler for the starting roster in the 2020 Summer Split. This was where he made a name for himself through stellar gameplay during the playoffs, and helped TSM pick up its first LCS split after 2017.
After the retirement of superstars Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, TSM replaced almost its entire roster but retained only Spica, and then tried building its team around the jungler. Notably, TSM also announced the retirement of its former top-laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon just last month.
The 2022 season was quite disappointing for the TSM League of Legends roster as it battled countless roster changes, communication issues, and legal problems surrounding the organization. It would be interesting to see who the team fields for the 2023 season in the meantime.
