League of Legends: Who is the greatest NA squad of all time?

#5 – Season 2 TSM

It’s impossible to have a list seeking the best squad in NA without TSM, and this was true from the very first season of competitive play.

TSM and their rivals in CLG built up much of the original fandom around League of Legends. The two duked it out on several LAN tournaments throughout Season 1 (there was no NA LCS at this point) and both teams took away titles.

However, during Season 2, TSM replaced their former top laner Christian ‘The Rain Man’ Kahmann with Marus ‘Dyrus’ Hill and turned on the heat, taking first in most of the LAN tournaments they attended, and in the process becoming the team to beat with the establishment of the NA LCS in Season 3.

However, it is nearly impossible to rate how powerful TSM were for the time; team infrastructure didn’t exist in its modern form until a year or two after this era, and teams like TSM and CLG were more collectives of friends and solo queue partners.

Though TSM certainly seemed to be the most powerful for their time, the lack of regular season play and the intimate nature of Season 1 Worlds (only eight teams were invited) makes it tough to rank them. The fact that they didn’t make the Finals of that tournament doesn’t help their case.

Accomplishments:

• Various LANs around NA and EU including:
  • 1st Place, IPL Face Off: San Francisco
  • 1st Place, IPL 4
  • 1st Place, MLG Anaheim
  • 1st Place, the GIGABYTE Esports LAN
• 1st Place, NA Regional Final