TSM: Looking at all the Possible Landing Spots for Dardoch

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Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games. /

TSM Dardoch has his LCS future in limbo, so we examine realistic landing spots for the jungler.

Buried in all the hullabaloo of the TSM controversy involving Leena Xu and Doublelift this week, was the revelation that jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett will likely find himself on a new team in the Summer Split. This will not be the first time Dardoch is looking for a new home, as this could land him on his seventh unique organization since the start of his career in 2015.

Setting aside the ethics of the leak, the revelation from TSM’s President Leena that “no one wants Dardoch” caused shock throughout the League of Legends community. Most people assumed that a player who entered the LCS with such promise and had played at an above-average level in the league as recently as last year would have at least some level of demand.

Given the subsequent release from Leena that the team had expressed a desire for Dardoch to split time between TSM’s main roster and Academy team, it’s likely that Dardoch is seeking a starting jungler position in the LCS. Going through the LCS teams, though, is a starting spot even likely?

100 Thieves

There is an argument to be made that Dardoch is more talented and has a higher ceiling than William “Meteos” Hartman. However, Meteos is a veteran of the LCS, now going into his seventh season.

Like Dardoch, Meteos has bounced around to a number of teams during his LCS career but now seems to have found a home with 100 Thieves. Although there are rumors that Meteos has worn out his welcome on teams in the past due to his stubborn beliefs about how to play League of Legends, is that enough to make the team drop him in favor of the less-consistent (at least recently) Dardoch? It’s possible but seems unlikely.

Cloud9

This actually has nothing to do with Dardoch, I just don’t see any world where C9 is giving up their rising star jungler (and Spring Split MVP Robert “Blaber” Huang) for anything right now. No chance this is an option for Dardoch.

Counter Logic Gaming

CLG’s jungler Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin had some pretty atrocious performances as his team failed in almost every conceivable way during the Spring Split, but looking at his end of the split stats, I’m not sure he’s as bad as many make him out to be. He had the second-highest kill participation of all junglers (behind only FlyQuest Santorin) and the third-lowest death share despite being tied for the most deaths per game.

Wiggily was not a great performer, to be sure, but his early game jungling was solid (he averaged gold, CS, and XP leads at 15, one of only three junglers in the LCS to do so) and he was saddled on a bad team. I think you can make the argument that Dardoch is better than him, especially at his peak, but there is one X-factor that swings Dardoch to CLG as a hard no for me.

If you recall, CLG Dardoch was a thing for a brief period of time back in Spring 2017. His tenure with CLG ended in a blaze of glory with the organization having some pretty rough words for their former jungler on his way out, including “Dardoch was unwilling to adhere to the set of standards expected of every member of the team.” That does not sound like an organization that would exactly be itching to bring Dardoch back into the fold, especially when you could argue that Wiggily is as good or slightly worse than him.

Dignitas

This is the first team where I could realistically see Dardoch landing. Dignitas had a lot of uncertainty in the jungle position last year, going from Jonathan “Grig” Armao to Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham in a midseason roster swap. In the offseason, Dignitas parted ways with Grig and effectively named Akaadian as the presumptive starting jungler for the summer.

Now, you could certainly make the argument that Dardoch is more talented than Akaadian. Dardoch was a former Rookie of the Split and All-Pro, while Akaadian has shown only flashes of above-average-to-good play in his brief LCS playing time. But, to me, that’s kind of the bigger picture.

Akaadian really hasn’t been given the starting roster job by a team that has been willing to go all-in on him. While Dignitas could certainly think that Dardoch is a better player than Akaadian, I would think they’re comfortable giving him the opportunity to be the starter going into the summer.

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