After signing the dotted line on a whopping nine-figure sponsorship deal in the summer of 2021, TSMFTX (formerly Team SoloMid) hasn’t wasted any time in splashing the cash, lauding their new-found wealth on their League of Legends roster in the off-season - to little success, so far.
Despite kicking off their LCS season with a dismal 1-8 record, TSM’s CEO Andy "Reginald" Dinh has opened up about their trifecta of new arrivals, and how they are not worried about the current standings.
TSM’s reputation within esports has recently been smeared by bad results across the board until a turnaround in VALORANT and a championship in Rainbow Six: Siege began to put some respect back on their name. However, over in League of Legends where they remain the most successful organisation in LCS history, an embarrassing eight losses in nine games has begun to besmirch their legacy.
But, with such a tarnished position in the current standings, Reginald has taken to a TSM subreddit to explain that they splashed the cash on a project for the future in the off-season, pouring $5million into three signings that they hope will be champions again in three years.
Mingyi "Spica" Lu, Edward "Tactical" Ra, and Wei "Shenyi" Zi-Jie were all brought into the TSM starting roster in the off-season, although the latter has recently been dropped from the team in favour of Academy graduate Wang "Yursan" Sheng-Yu. Through buyouts, lengthy in-person trials, and an extensive scouting network, Reginald claims the org spent $5million on the LoL roster and settled on rookies to "rebuild over three years".
Amid the claims, Reginald continued, "We also knew the above roster would lead to a more consistent performance but thought it wouldn’t have the potential to dominate the league or go far at worlds. Probably top 4. We wanted to build over 3 years, not one.
"We don’t want to make safe bets to be in the top 4 in NA for one year and then rebuild again with veterans. We spent over 1M buying out both shenyi and KDO. We went with rookies to rebuild over 3 years, not build for one year at a time."
He further claimed that the organisation flew in 20 players to the TSM compound to try out for the roster, completing an extensive scouting network across NA, Korea, and China in order to get the roster that Head Coach Parth Naidu wanted.
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Reginald is currently under investigation by Riot Games for his treatment of TSM employees, including Parth, after ex-players, such as Doublelift, has claimed instances of bullying and verbal abuse.
"We actually spent 5M on League which is top 3," Reginald claimed in a post, responding to comments from Ex-TSM Executive Leena Xu, who claimed that the organisation doesn’t see value in the LCS and are operating with a roster they don’t want.
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Leena Xu, the former President of Esports at TSM, claimed that the roster that the side wanted to start the 2021 season with Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, AD Carry Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, and support Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme, but the organisation did not see it to be "worth the cost", and the org has spiralled as a result.
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CLOUD9 RIDICULED AFTER LS EXPLANATION EXPLAINS NOTHING
IMAGES VIA CLOUD9
Written by
JACK MARSH
Posted
23RD FEB 2022 16:56
As the Western half of League of Legends slipped to a near-all-time low in the 2021 World Championships, a sprinkle of Eastern experience was welcomed, as a revamped Cloud9 roster added the South Korean duo of Park "Summit" Woo-tae and Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol to the squad alongside a Head Coach known for his in-game reinvention and promotion of Korean talents.
Nick "LS" De Cesare, previously the Head Coach at Worlds 2021 semifinalists T1, headed back to the West after learning the South Korean LPL methods, with the hope that he could inspire Cloud9 to implement some of his unorthodox drafts and catapult them atop NA.
However, after just two months in charge and three games with the roster, Cloud9 have released LS, in favour of Max Waldo, much to the dismay of many fans.
CLOUD9 CEO RESPONDS TO LS RELEASE
After a 2-1 record to kick off the LCS season, including wins against Evil Geniuses and Immortals, the release of LS came as quite a surprise - even prompting EU players like Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski to claim "there’s no point watching the LCS anymore."
Following the backlash, Cloud9 CEO, Jack Ettiene, released a video, in which he stated, “the reason why we got to the point we were with LS was that Cloud9, for years, has developed systems on how we like to coach and operate our team, and despite our best efforts, working with LS to try to come to terms and see eye-to-eye on how that should work, we were unable to make that actually happen.”
"I think it’s important to note that all players, coaches, and management were aware of these issues and frustrations and our mutual efforts to try to resolve them over the last several weeks," Etienne said. "Unfortunately, as time went on, it was really clear that we were unable to find a resolution and come together on figuring out this problem. We decided that it was important that we make a change and release LS at that point so we could move forward and focus on the future," he continued.
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CLOUD9 EXPLANATION EXPLAINS NOTHING, ACCORDING TO FANS
However, the video has seemingly created more problems than answers, with many viewers confused about the message and a lack of clarity into what the specific problems were.
Cloud9 Release LS Explanation Video
With the video coming just a day after 100 Thieves owner Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag was praised for his explanation about the cut-throat axing of VALORANT duo Hunter "BabyJ" Schline and Adam "ec1s" Eccles, the lack of transparency from Cloud9 was an instant gripe. "Compared to Nadeshot's video yesterday explaining why they removed two players after two weeks this really didn't say much. The lighting looks good though," joked renowned League of Legends journalist Tyler "Ffion" Erzberger.
Another fan compared their original statement upon signing LS to their departure stance, joking, "January 2022: ‘We brought in LS because we need a change and want to win’. February 2022: ‘We released LS because we were changing the way coaching in C9 works.’"
Having now surpassed more than a million views, jibes such as, "this literally explained nothing," "thanks for wasting three minutes of my time," and "GG. You broke the World Record for talking without actually saying anything," continued to light up the timeline.
LS, often remembered for inventing the no-boots Kassadin build 안전놀이터 and being an avid advocate of Liandry's Torment over Morellonomicon, has now returned to Korea, where he hopes his "third wind" for LoL will help him to land another job and continue showcasing his far-fetched, yet effective, tactics.
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