LCS: Breaking Down How Well Jatt will do as Team Liquid’s Coach

The Former LCS player and caster Jatt moves into head coaching role.

It was announced today that former LCS caster Joshua “Jatt” Leesman would be stepping into the head coaching role for Team Liquid. This is an interesting move, to say the least, with a lot of upsides and possible pitfalls. Here are all the reasons why I think Jatt can succeed on Team Liquid and why this could end in disaster.

Pro: Jatt Knows the Game

Jatt has been around the professional scene in some role since 2011, so I imagine he can play the game at some high level, even if it wasn’t quite up to his days as a professional player. I’m sure he also keeps up to date with the meta and knows what it takes to play the professional game. I imagine he knows what it’s like to be a player as well, which can help a lot of coaches.

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Through his casting, it is evident that he has a lot of game knowledge as well. This is also true with his work on his league related podcast the JLXP. He is around the game and knows what’s going on.

I wouldn’t doubt he has an expert level knowledge base about this game. He can then pass this knowledge onto his players and help them succeed.

Con: He’s Inexperienced

Jatt is a rookie coach, with no coaching experience. Yes, he does have the knowledge base, but how will that add up to being able to coach?

If you haven’t done something before your bound to make mistakes and fail if you don’t know what you’re doing. This could hurt Jatt if the results of his calls are losses and Liquid continues to falter as he will be the one to blame.

Yes, he could improve and learn what to do throughout the season, but wouldn’t it have been a better idea to have him learn as an assistant coach under an experienced head coach rather than just throw him into the fire as a head coach right off the bat? Luckily, with former Liquid head coach Cain still with the team as a strategic coach I don’t think Jatt will be completely lost if he needs coaching resources.

Pro: The Team is Stacked

This is Jatt’s  first time coaching in the LCS, but he does have a solid team of resources to get started with. Even if they did underachieve massively during the Spring Split it still is a talented roster of players with world’s experience and LCS titles. It isn’t like he needs to start over with a brand new roster, or one full of rookies. Having this base can be comforting to a coach and make the job easier.

Con: The Team is in a Weird Spot

Trying to coach Team Liquid isn’t an easy task, and I’m sure less so when they are coming off a ninth-place finish after four splits in a row of championships. It’s easy to jump into a team and coach when they are winning and spirits are high.

However, with Liquid on the other end and not playing well, especially after two years of great success this move might not be something easy to jump into. Especially if the expectation coming in for the rookie coach is a championship or bust, it could be a lot of pressure for Jatt, which may cause him to fail. This could really be an issue if he only gets a single split to try and turn this team around.

I also wonder if Team Liquid is a player-focused team rather than a coach focused-team. If the players are calling the shots more so than Jatt I could see him not being too happy from a lack of respect. Team Liquid does have some big egos on it, so how well will Jatt fit in with those players? If he doesn’t keep them in check it might not go well for him.

I think the move is interesting, to say the least. Though I think the only way to know for sure if this was the right call is to wait and see. I just hope Jatt gets a fair chance to try and turn this team around not just one split.