League of Legends: what are the next steps for TSM after a second-straight Worlds miss?
By Josh Tyler
TSM missed the League of Legends World Championship for the second-straight year. What are the next steps?
In a lot of ways, TSM’s 2019 Season was worse than their 2018 Season. While the organization missed the League of Legends World Championship both years, in 2018 TSM was a team that clearly just did not work. Their coaching staff was inadequate, their bot lane was clearly having an off-year, and they basically meandered through the whole year without a jungler.
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In 2019, however, there were flashes that the team had turned a corner. They’d upgraded their coaching staff in Zikz and Goldman, later adding Peter Zhang, and seemingly given them autonomy in running the team. They’d shored up the bot lane and found the next promising top laner, while stumbling into a somewhat-flawed jungler that synergized well with the rest of the team.
They took down Cloud9 in a reverse sweep. They took Team Liquid, perhaps the best LCS team to ever exist, to match point three straight games barely losing in the fifth game.
After that, everything went off the rails.
The 2019 Spring Split Finals was the apex of 2019 TSM. Everything after that was marred by underperformance, dysfunction, indecision, and far more controversy than a team that is vying to be one of the best in LCS should have.
Now, as TSM will be sitting home watching Worlds once again, the outlook is even bleaker than it was last season. ADC Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen is almost certain to leave. Mid laner and face of the franchise Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg is speculated to be leaving. They still don’t have a jungler. The coaching staff has been called into question. Their top laner and support, while both good young pieces are inconsistent.
TSM is now facing an off-season full of massive decisions and self-reflection. Once the flagship organization of North American League of Legends, the team must reckon with the fact that they have now fallen firmly below teams like Liquid and Cloud9 in that respect. But what should TSM do if they want to reclaim the glory of past years?