Team SoloMid: Long way from the bay
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Team SoloMid (TSM) is not what it used to be. The “Baylife” bros have broken up, without a single remaining player from their Season 1 days. Sporting only one American player in Dyrus, and only two from the entire continent of North America, TSM isn't even recognizable today as the team it was this time last year. But in that case, why do the TSM chants continue to ring out? It's simple: They refuse to disappoint those voices. Overcoming a shocking brush with mediocrity, in the 11th hour TSM has managed to pull out what may be the best form in the organization's history.
Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg was not a North American player. The star player on the European team Ninjas in Pyjamas, Bjergsen found himself plummeting from the EU LCS Summer Playoffs all the way to the Promotion Tournament. Rather than face relegation, Bjergsen accepted an offer few could refuse: come to North America and take over for Reginald. The “Bjergerking” was the second European player to take such an offer, but unlike Edward's short-lived fling on Curse, this was a roster change that accomplished exactly what Reginald hoped.
Bjergsen made his debut as a member of TSM at the Battle of the Atlantic, going 6 and 1 in his first match and leading the team to a 2-0 over Lemondogs to kick off the year. The King's reign was only beginning, however, as his consistently dominating performances made Bjergsen the regional MVP for the first two weeks in a row. He also kept TSM barely ahead of rival Cloud9 in the No. 1 spot for seven straight weeks, and it earned him the overall season MVP in the end. A few dropped games at the end of the split brought them into the playoffs in second, but nonetheless stronger than ever before.
Low on time and in need of a miracle, new coach Locodoco announced that TSM would be making changes at the Support position with only two weeks left in the split. Though Gleeb was picked up with the knowledge that he was an unformed talent, his development was not up to the team's standards and would not be enough to take down NA's top teams. Gleeb was replaced by Lustboy, TSM's second international import. An OGN Champions winner and former support for CJ Blaze, his mechanics and experience were unassailable. But with CLG's acquisition of fellow Korean Seraph proving less successful than they'd hoped and EG's of Helios still unproven, TSM's move was greeted with uneasy enthusiasm.
Lustboy debuted with a 2-0 over bottom-ranked EG and a CLG who looked shakier every week. When Super Week rolled around the next week, they were only able to scrape out a single win. The season ended with TSM in third place, behind LMQ and (once again) the re-invigorated Cloud9. They advanced to playoffs, but looked even less capable of a win than in Spring. It looked like this could be the year a Worlds was held without an appearance from Team SoloMid.
Whatever training TSM underwent in the interim period built an incredible level of synergy between Lustboy and his AD Carry, as the new Korean support made incredible play after incredible play with astounding consistency. It was as though Lustboy was a machine whose only function was to play Nami flawlessly, with more games on her than any other champion combined. Four-man bubbles and perfect tidal waves gave TSM engagements that shouldn't have been possible, allowing them to turn nearly anything around and making room for its other standout players to slam it home.
Dyrus is not a guy you associate with the word “emotion.” This has been a community joke for his entire career, which is exactly why this playoff was something special. After taking down Dignitas 3-1, TSM entered into a dead-heat brawl with LMQ: a team it didn't take a single game off of during the season. With Bjergsen and XiaoWeiXiao both playing incredible as usual, it fell on the other lanes to step up and make the difference, and Dyrus responded in kind. Perfect rotations, perfect teleports, and a level of lane dominance and aggression we rarely see from him were capped off by a solo kill top in Game 5 on Ackerman. A giant was awoken, and TSM rode his shoulders to another shot at Cloud9.
The Summer Finals were, undoubtedly, the highlight of the entire year of North American League of Legends. Cloud9 came out swinging and smacked TSM down early, causing the hundreds of thousands of viewers to instantly recall last split's disaster. TSM was supposedly destroying C9 every time they scrimmed, but for whatever reason, they couldn't get it done when it counted. Reggie and Locodoco stormed the stage and gave the team a thorough talking-to, and the crowd chanted and cheered for TSM – both working together to remind the team: “It's just a scrim. Play your game.” As Game 2 began, the crowd erupted in a single unified “T S M, T S M, T S M” chant. No one wanted to see it end like this.
It didn't.
Bjergsen on his signature Syndra, Dyrus on a giant angry Alistair, and a Lustboy Thresh every bit as good as his Nami headlined a thunderous comeback that handed Cloud9 their first loss in NA playoff history. The arena shook with “TSM.” It was impossible not to believe. Hai's Zed sliced right back through TSM in Game 3, going 6/0/1 to retake the lead. Backs against the wall, TSM tied it up with a perfect game for Dyrus' Ryze. And finally, with a score of 11-10 in 39 minutes, Team SoloMid overcame its demons. They defeated Cloud9, and for the first time in over a year, became the number one team in North America.
Today's Team Solomid is not the TSM you know. There's no way around this. The team whose vlogs offered a glimpse into the life of a pro gamer, the team whose signature “Baylife” attitude defined a fanbase stronger than any in the world, the team who got thousands of fans into League: that team is not the team that will be fighting for the pride of North America at Worlds this October, as the only team to compete at all four World Championships. This new TSM is an international squad: a motley crew of players from all over the world, brought together under one storied banner. This new TSM is a crack squad put together for the express purpose of doing exactly what they just did: accomplishing Reggie's dream, the General's dream, and the fans' dream of seeing TSM take number one.
This new TSM is the strongest the organization has ever looked.
A Call for a King
Team SoloMid came out of Season 3 unsatisfied and outmatched. Thoroughly trounced by Cloud9 at home and near the bottom of the Worlds table, League of Legends' biggest name was in danger of being left behind entirely. Something had to change. Andy “Reginald” Dinh, the organization's owner and mid laner since the beginning, decided he was a part of that change. No longer able to both manage TSM the organization and play to the TSM standard, he elected to step down and make way for a replacement. Reginald's heir apparent? A man whose very presence would change the NA LCS forever.
Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg was not a North American player. The star player on the European team Ninjas in Pyjamas, Bjergsen found himself plummeting from the EU LCS Summer Playoffs all the way to the Promotion Tournament. Rather than face relegation, Bjergsen accepted an offer few could refuse: come to North America and take over for Reginald. The “Bjergerking” was the second European player to take such an offer, but unlike Edward's short-lived fling on Curse, this was a roster change that accomplished exactly what Reginald hoped.
Bjergsen made his debut as a member of TSM at the Battle of the Atlantic, going 6 and 1 in his first match and leading the team to a 2-0 over Lemondogs to kick off the year. The King's reign was only beginning, however, as his consistently dominating performances made Bjergsen the regional MVP for the first two weeks in a row. He also kept TSM barely ahead of rival Cloud9 in the No. 1 spot for seven straight weeks, and it earned him the overall season MVP in the end. A few dropped games at the end of the split brought them into the playoffs in second, but nonetheless stronger than ever before.
Ghost of Splits Past
TSM may have been spoiling for a fight with Cloud9, but they first needed to get through their old enemy Counter Logic Gaming, a team supercharged by the addition of European jungler Dexter. Defeating CLG was by no means a foregone conclusion, and when the series began it was a nightmare come true: their base destroyed by CLG in less than thirty minutes. Game 2, and their date with revenge, was slipping through their fingers as well, before a turnaround at 28 minutes led to a dazzling Bjergsen pentakill on Karma to tie up the series. Their confidence shattered, CLG looked a shadow of themselves in the third match as TSM closed it out to reach the Finals. Cloud9, meanwhile, had no such difficulties dealing with Curse in its semifinal. Then, in a direct repeat of the previous split, they mercilessly 3-0'd TSM with minimal resistance. 18-1 in Game 1, 21-4 in Game 2, 15-1 in Game 3. As good as TSM was all season, and as well as they came back against CLG, they just couldn't reach the clouds where the two-time North American champions reigned. TSM wasn't a bad team. They just weren't the best.
A Summer of Struggle
The North American Summer Split was an odd season, in more ways than one. Following the successful importation of European talents Bjergsen and Dexter, the NA LCS suddenly found itself in Summer as a truly international affair. CLG brought in a Korean top-laner, EG brought in a Korean jungler, and Chinese team LMQ took over XDG's spot entirely. But it was Team SoloMid who made the most unexpected, and by far the most shocking, of changes. In a very real sense, it was the end of an era. First, Reginald announced that the team was benching Xpecial, the team's top-class support player, due to issues with his attitude. A week later, TheOddOne announced his sudden retirement from professional play, feeling he was holding TSM back from reaching No. 1. Just like that, the only two remaining Season 1 TSM players were gone. Taking over for Xpecial was NA Challenger player Gleeb, and European jungler Amazing would replace the General. Fans weren't quite sure what to feel as they watched a team they didn't recognize take the stage when the season began. Their confusion persisted as the team failed to perform. Even with Cloud9 in a major slump throughout the majority of the season, TSM couldn't keep up with the new Dignitas squad, a strong CLG, and the newcomers from China led by their dazzling mid-laner, XiaoWeiXiao. Consistently in the middle of the pack, and looking unspectacular even when they won, TSM maintained its modest position largely on the back of an 11-1 record against the bottom three teams in the league. This was not the team TheOddOne left to create. This was not the team Reginald envisioned. And most importantly, this was not a team the fans would chant for once their faith ran dry.Last Minute Lust
Low on time and in need of a miracle, new coach Locodoco announced that TSM would be making changes at the Support position with only two weeks left in the split. Though Gleeb was picked up with the knowledge that he was an unformed talent, his development was not up to the team's standards and would not be enough to take down NA's top teams. Gleeb was replaced by Lustboy, TSM's second international import. An OGN Champions winner and former support for CJ Blaze, his mechanics and experience were unassailable. But with CLG's acquisition of fellow Korean Seraph proving less successful than they'd hoped and EG's of Helios still unproven, TSM's move was greeted with uneasy enthusiasm.
Lustboy debuted with a 2-0 over bottom-ranked EG and a CLG who looked shakier every week. When Super Week rolled around the next week, they were only able to scrape out a single win. The season ended with TSM in third place, behind LMQ and (once again) the re-invigorated Cloud9. They advanced to playoffs, but looked even less capable of a win than in Spring. It looked like this could be the year a Worlds was held without an appearance from Team SoloMid.
Redemption
Sometimes, everything suddenly falls into place. Sometimes, hard work is rewarded. And sometimes, those looking on witness something magical. For a long-time fan of Team SoloMid, the NA LCS Summer Playoffs at PAX Prime were nothing less. It's tempting to line up circumstances that downplay TSM's magic at PAX. You can point to the collapse of CLG, the fact that LMQ seemed “figured out,” or that Dignitas' early momentum had all but completely vanished. But in the end, two people showed up that weekend. Two people were responsible for elevating this Team SoloMid to new heights: TSM's newest member, and its oldest one.
Whatever training TSM underwent in the interim period built an incredible level of synergy between Lustboy and his AD Carry, as the new Korean support made incredible play after incredible play with astounding consistency. It was as though Lustboy was a machine whose only function was to play Nami flawlessly, with more games on her than any other champion combined. Four-man bubbles and perfect tidal waves gave TSM engagements that shouldn't have been possible, allowing them to turn nearly anything around and making room for its other standout players to slam it home.
Dyrus is not a guy you associate with the word “emotion.” This has been a community joke for his entire career, which is exactly why this playoff was something special. After taking down Dignitas 3-1, TSM entered into a dead-heat brawl with LMQ: a team it didn't take a single game off of during the season. With Bjergsen and XiaoWeiXiao both playing incredible as usual, it fell on the other lanes to step up and make the difference, and Dyrus responded in kind. Perfect rotations, perfect teleports, and a level of lane dominance and aggression we rarely see from him were capped off by a solo kill top in Game 5 on Ackerman. A giant was awoken, and TSM rode his shoulders to another shot at Cloud9.
The Summer Finals were, undoubtedly, the highlight of the entire year of North American League of Legends. Cloud9 came out swinging and smacked TSM down early, causing the hundreds of thousands of viewers to instantly recall last split's disaster. TSM was supposedly destroying C9 every time they scrimmed, but for whatever reason, they couldn't get it done when it counted. Reggie and Locodoco stormed the stage and gave the team a thorough talking-to, and the crowd chanted and cheered for TSM – both working together to remind the team: “It's just a scrim. Play your game.” As Game 2 began, the crowd erupted in a single unified “T S M, T S M, T S M” chant. No one wanted to see it end like this.
It didn't.
Bjergsen on his signature Syndra, Dyrus on a giant angry Alistair, and a Lustboy Thresh every bit as good as his Nami headlined a thunderous comeback that handed Cloud9 their first loss in NA playoff history. The arena shook with “TSM.” It was impossible not to believe. Hai's Zed sliced right back through TSM in Game 3, going 6/0/1 to retake the lead. Backs against the wall, TSM tied it up with a perfect game for Dyrus' Ryze. And finally, with a score of 11-10 in 39 minutes, Team SoloMid overcame its demons. They defeated Cloud9, and for the first time in over a year, became the number one team in North America.
Baylife Forever
Today's Team Solomid is not the TSM you know. There's no way around this. The team whose vlogs offered a glimpse into the life of a pro gamer, the team whose signature “Baylife” attitude defined a fanbase stronger than any in the world, the team who got thousands of fans into League: that team is not the team that will be fighting for the pride of North America at Worlds this October, as the only team to compete at all four World Championships. This new TSM is an international squad: a motley crew of players from all over the world, brought together under one storied banner. This new TSM is a crack squad put together for the express purpose of doing exactly what they just did: accomplishing Reggie's dream, the General's dream, and the fans' dream of seeing TSM take number one.
This new TSM is the strongest the organization has ever looked.
, she's got A's whe the rest of them have D's...
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