League of Legends: TSM is poised for success with a new coach

After missing another League of Legends World Championship many TSM fans were happy to see new faces in their coaching staff.

Peter Zhang, his name is well known in the NA LCS as he has been coaching since the days of LMQ. In his time at LMQ the team went from completely unknown to a North American representative at the League of Legends World Championship in their first year.

He would move onto Team Liquid‘s coaching staff soon after. They were ultimately unable to make the World Championship as they were defeated by Cloud9 during their miraculous gauntlet run to Worlds. Soon after he would bounce around in the LCS Academy before landing with TSM.

While it is not known just how much he contributed to their LCS starting lineup it was apparent that he took a more commanding role with their starters in 2019. It was seen in TSM’s announcement that they were always considering Peter Zhang’s role to continue to expand beyond the Academy roster. He is experienced in the LCS but many fans groaned when they heard the news, with the unexpectedly quick departure from former CLG coach, Zikz, many were expecting large changes in their coaching philosophy as well.

Instead, they believe they are going to see more of the same and while their lineup has a lot of potential the skepticism now falls on if the coaches will be up to the task.

Arguably the best decision during the offseason was that of replacing Zven with Kobbe from the LEC. The European ADC became known as one of the top western bottom laners last year. The bottom lane changed completely as Smoothie was also replaced by a former TSM support, Biofrost. During Biofrosts’ time with CLG, he was able to establish himself as one of the best supports in the LCS.

Their most hyped addition, however, was actually their jungler. Dardoch has been met with open arms by most fans and many expect this team to explode with “potential”. However, the more reserved members of the fan base see the addition of Dardoch and Peter Zhang’s promotion as a step back.

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For a team that is built with many strong personalities, likely, someone such as Peter could actually be what they need. I expect Peter to be less of a strategic coach and be more focused on diffusing possible problems within the team itself. Bjergsen has always had success in North America but the team has struggled to perform internationally nearly every year.

The players are all hungry for a championship and it seems likely that they are all strong-minded and focused competitors who want to compete at the highest level. Dardoch will be wanting to prove to himself and to the fans that he has changed as a teammate. The man in charge of putting them all together is a young coach who may lack the necessary rigidity.

At the time Zikz left many attributed the mutual decision to coaching philosophy differences. This leads me to believe he wanted to take an approach with the players that TSM’s management was not comfortable with or the players were not comfortable with. With the addition of Dardoch, it is also possible that he was what kept Zikz from continuing with TSM.

If TSM does not perform up to the fan’s expectations I expect Peter to receive a majority of the blame. It may be unfair, as the fans do not know how much Peter is contributing to their success and how much he is contributing to their failures.

Another move that split some hairs was the decision to keep Jangsik “Lustboy” Ham as their strategic coach. He specifically helped the bottom lane as well as their picks and bans and in TSM’s announcement, it seems as if they plan on him continuing this role. The bottom lane was where most fans pointed their attention when mistakes would appear in the TSM games (whenever it wasn’t whoever was rotating in the jungle split between Akaadian/Grig that is).

The pick and ban was also a point of contention during the year and especially throughout the playoffs. Many fans will use the power of hindsight to say certain champs that won every game in the series should have been banned but after some point, you have to think maybe TSM should ban Skarner or maybe TSM should stop picking Jayce.

This is also the same coaching staff that was unable to decide between Akaadian, Grig or Spica and ended up throwing Spica in at the last second for the Gauntlet. It was do or die time and they somehow ended up with the rookie jungler making his debut in their final games of the season.

The skepticism is warranted, but there is still much upside with this roster. It is also rumored that TSM was in discussions with Homme to be their coach, it is unclear at this time whether they were unable to come to an arrangement with him or if they simply decided to go separate ways. But now is the time to be excited about the possibilities.

This roster is stacked with mechanical talent and if they can’t perform the blame should justly be placed on the coaching staff. It is a bit surprising that with a roster with this much potential they would risk it falling apart due to coaching but it seems as if they believe their current staff is capable of undertaking this challenge. So if TSM fails, the fault does not lie on Lustboy or Peter, but with their management.

Once again it seems as if TSM is struggling like the rest of the LCS has with coaching. There are differing philosophies and approaches by the coaches that have been brought in to help in the past. There have been former players, players from other esports titles, traditional sports coaches and even psychologists.

The LCS will slowly evolve and perhaps Peter will be a great Head Coach in NA, but for now, we are all still unsure, even TSM. What type of coach does an esport require? Eventually, the winning formula will appear, and if Peter is the right type of person then this team has the ability to skyrocket to the top of the standings.