Cover-Credits:
The first round-robin of the 2022 League Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split has come to an end with the completion of the super week, which witnessed three days of play. With the split halfway done, each team has played every other team in the LCS once. The once-heavyweight of the league, Team SoloMid (TSM), continues to struggle. TSM is currently at the very bottom of the standings with a 1-8 record, and the only victory came from its match against Immortals.
It seems like TSM has yet to strike a chord of unity and find the voice of its current roster. The organization received a lot of flak from the fans for the untimely benching of its support Wei “Shenyi” Zi-Jie. A statement from TSM’s Esports Vice-President Dominic Kallas stated that TSM Academy player Wang “Yursan” Sheng-Yu will play for the organization’s LCS team and that Shenyi would play support for TSM Academy to help him get accustomed to the North American (NA) pro scene.
TSM-CLG faceoff and Reginald’s tweet, AMA backfire
Following TSM’s disappointing showing in the LCS week after week, it was slated to fight against its archrival Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) in the super week. Surprisingly, CLG has also had a disappointing split so far as the team is currently 3-6. Fans were sarcastically hyping up this matchup on social media and highlighted TSM’s CEO Andy “Reginald” Dinh’s tweet about CLG.
In 2020, Reginald had tweeted, “CLG and TSM isn’t a rivalry, CLG is a dead brand. Just stating facts, not trash talking. The broadcast should just talk TSM vs C9 vs TL while we’re playing. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Likewise, Reginald did an ask-me-anything (AMA) on TSM’s Reddit in 2021 and answered questions posed by fans. When one user asked if they could trust the organization to not fail as CLG did, Reginald replied, “There's NO F****** WAY I would ever let us end up like CLG. I would sell my house, car, and clothes, my everything to sign the best talent at that point.”
TSM and CLG faced off on Week 2 day 4 of the LCS Spring Split. Coming into the match, both the teams had a record of 1-6. Unfortunately for Reginald and TSM, the comments made against CLG would come back to haunt them, as the team suffered a major loss. As the TSM nexus was being hit by CLG, one of the casters said, “Regi, get the eBay account ready buddy. It’s time to sell things.” There have been countless memes about Reginald’s comments online.
Esports writer Tyler “Fionn” Erzberger wrote on Twitter after TSM lost to CLG, “TSM is now 1-7. They just lost to CLG. Sole possession of last place. Their only win was a gigantic throw from Immortals. Just damn. Never been lower for TSM as a franchise in the LCS. Even when they've had bad times, CLG was below them. Not today.”
The narrative around TSM Spica and Shenyi
There have been speculations that Mingyi "Spica" Lu and Shenyi have not been getting along very well on social media.
One Reddit user threw light on this as they decoded some of the rumors about the alleged beef between TSM’s jungler and support.
Following this heated debate on social media about the players’ relationship in the team and doubts around Shenyi’s benching, Spica broke his silence and weighed in on the situation.
Spica wrote on Twitter, “The narrative has gotten out of hand. No one on the team was against Shenyi shotcalling, in fact when he first told us (after 0-4) we all agreed. No player played a part in deciding his benching and it was not anything gameplay related. I wish my only job is to jungle.”
Some of the pro players and League of Legends casters rallied in support of Spica immediately. However, the community still feels like TSM has to address the controversies surrounding the League of Legends roster to put these narratives to rest and cultivate a positive environment for the players.
Meanwhile, screenshots of TSM’s ex-president Leena Xu’s comment on Peter "Doublelift" Peng’s Twitch stream about how the current roster was not what the old management wanted has been doing the rounds on social media.
In response to this, Reginald wrote on a Reddit thread that TSM brought in Shenyi and Zhu "Keaiduo" Xiong to build a roster over three years.
TL Bjergsen hovers over Shen, Yi during the match against TSM
Fans of the LCS were hyped up to see Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg play against TSM in the LCS after he moved on to Team Liquid as its new mid-laner.
As a move that added fuel to the fire of the alleged beef in TSM, Bjergsen hovered over two champions that are no way in the current meta. He hovered over Shen and Yi during the champion select, probably taking a jibe at TSM’s Shenyi.
Director of TSM Legends Andrew White bids farewell
Amidst all the controversies shrouding TSM, the organization lost one more longtime member. TSM Legends director Andrew White left his position after six years with TSM. He joined TSM as a video producer for the organization's docuseries TSM Legends and reached the position of director of the series.
He wrote on Twitter, “After over 6 years I am leaving TSM. I'm grateful to have been a part of this unique period in esports and for the opportunity to share these moments with the world,” and linked a blogpost.
Just recently TSM bid farewell to its general manager Parth Naidu, who was with the organization for over seven years.
Problems and controversies continue to plague Team SoloMid. With the first round-robin for the LCS having concluded, fans can only wait and see as to how the team bounces back in the league. Fans continue to question the organization’s need to rope in players from other regions like China to foster a new team but then immediately bench them once things go south.
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