ptkovsky
Not so long ago, we already reported about multiple rumors that surfaced in various esports media outlets around the world indicating that one of the West’s most iconic mid lane players in League of Legends — Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, was set to come back to the professional competition in a player role.
As a former professional LoL player with a huge follower base, Bjergsen even came back to streaming for a bit on his Twitch account somewhere last month, and his stream immediately gained a lt of attention from his fellow followers and the esports community around the world.
And now it turns out that the initial rumors were true. Not so long ago, Soren’s organization, known as one of the United States’ best LoL teams — Team SoloMid, made an official announcement in their social media account.
An update from @TSMReginald and @parthenaan on our LCS roster. pic.twitter.com/1C0ji7cfGL
— TSM FTX (@TSM) October 28, 2021
It appears that the fan favorite NA LoL team’s CEO Andy “Reginald” Dinh and also TSM’s coach and manager Parth “Parth” Naidu in their short public video announcement were talking about the recent drastic changes in the LoL roster of the North American multigaming esports organization, coming from the LCS league.
Bjergsen left the North American organization after spending about eight long years with the team, since he joined the Team SoloMid squad in Season 3.
According to the TSM’s announcement, Bjerg was free to look for other opportunities starting from the beginning of the last month.
Moreover, the famed 25-year-old mid lane player supposedly denied all of the organization’s offerings, including the ability to create his own desired roster under the Team SoloMid brand.
Instead, Bjergsen decided to pursue an entirely different path with the other organization, the title of which remains unknown at the current point of the time.
Reginald himself, as the team’s owner, expressed an opinion that TSM’s goal always was to achieve the best possible results and compete at the highest levels, including the ultimate Worlds stage.
And now, for achieving their new goals without Bjergsen’s assistance and him occupying coaching or player slot in the team, the NA multigaming esports organization’s strategy is to build from the ground the entirely new foundation of their League of Legends roster, consisting mainly of the young, talented, and up-and-coming players.
The announcement of Bjergsen’s departure also came in right with the other exciting news about the other legendary Asian LoL player parting his ways with the Team SoloMid organization.
Today we bid farewell to @TSM_SwordArt
Thank you for everything you contributed to #TSM during your time with the org. We wish you all the best with your next challenge. pic.twitter.com/KUMHTk1kIj
— TSM FTX (@TSM) October 29, 2021
About a year ago, in November 2020, TSM signed a big contract with another famous Taiwanese support player nicknamed Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh.
SwordArt started his professional esports career in 2012, and Shuo-Chieh has some huge local and international experience under his belt. Before joining the Suning team, he played for other famous Asian LoL teams, such as Gamania Bears and also Flash Wolves squad.
During his previous Worlds events starting from the first Season 3 World Championship, Shuo-Chieh’s Gamania Bears organization received a direct invitation to the playoffs stage, and they were defeated by the SK Telecom T1 squad with the 0:2 score in the quarterfinals stage of the North American event.
Two years later, at the Worlds 2015 event in Europe, SwordArt’s Flash Wolves team topped their respective group A by overcoming KOO Tigers, Counter Logic Gaming, and paiN Gaming, but then lost to the likes of xPeke’s Origen team with the 1:3 score in the quarterfinals of the event’s knockout phase.
And at the Worlds 2018 championship which was organized in South Korea, SwordArt’s FW team could not make it out of the group and they finished third, behind Afreeca Freecs and G2 Esports.
The 24-year-old import from Taiwan became famous in the LoL esports community mostly for finishing second with his Chinese team Suning at the Worlds 2020 offline event which was held in Shanghai, China.
The SN squad lost 1:3 in the final Suning vs DAMWON Gaming match of the event to the likes of the top South Korean LoL team DAMWON Gaming, and secured their $400,000 prize money.
Interestingly enough, SwordArt’s Suning squad was steadily progressing throughout the whole competitive season in 2020, as the SN team managed to first finish out of the top 10 at the LPL Spring 2020 with the 7-9 record and did not make it to the playoffs.
The Suning team then were surprisingly able to significantly improve their results at the next LPL 2020 Summer event. The SN squad finished fourth with a 12-4 score in the main Chinese LoL league.
The LPL 2020 Summer Playoffs turned out even better for the Taiwanese support, as the LPL team went up straight to the Suning vs Top Esports semifinals, where they lost 0:3 to Top Esports, but were able to win the third place in Suning vs LGD Gaming match with the reverse 3:0 score against the LGD Gaming roster.
After finishing second at Worlds in 2020, SwordArt’s contract was transferred to the TSM organization for the record $6,000,000. This was at the time supposedly the biggest amount of money ever paid for the player transfer in the LCS region.
Simultaneously, With Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng leaving the team and Bjergsen moving to the coaching slot, and the addition of SwordArt to the Team SoloMid’s roster, Reginald stated that he is aiming for the highest goals like the Worlds playoffs or even the finals of the Riot Games’ main LoL championship.
His plans sadly did not work out in the way he wanted them to be, as TSM could not even make it to the start of the next Worlds 2021 championship.
Despite finishing first at the LCS Summer 2021 split, Bjergsen’s team lost 2:3 in the classic TSM vs Cloud9 derby and placed fourth at the LCS 2021 Championship competition.
All in all, TSM are now left with the following roster of players:
- Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon (Top Laner)
- Mingyi “Spica” Lu (Jungler)
- Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage (Mid Laner)
- Lawrence “Lost” Sze Yuy Hui (Bot Laner)