TSM has a tendency of taking the bite out of its Junglers. In fact, it is more akin to TSM taking their Junglers’ Canines and running them through sandpaper, then trading them in for another sharp tooth.

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Going back to 2014 Summer, you would see TSM Amazing roll through the rift on his signature Lee Sin and Elise picks, where he primarily won. Attempting to play a non-aggressive Jungler such as tank Jarvan IV during regular season was suicide and almost guaranteed an instant loss. 

The only fallback option for Amazing from his traditional Lee and Elise was either the Kha’Zix or Nunu, both aggressive jungle champions that gave TSM the ability to trudge through both LMQ, the Chinese powerhouse, and Cloud 9, the new kids on the block that would not give the old black and white dynasty a break. This began TSM’s new reign in North America—a road filled with roadblocks, tears, North American trophies and international disappointment.   Hitting the World Stage back in 2014, they lucked out through Svenskeren's penalization and having the easiest Group in the tournament. At the time, they felt like an aggressive team that pushed the leads they garnered through lanes and successful ganks. They did not roll over and die, they did not wait until a 4 item power spike and hope the enemy makes a mistake—they were a solid team that very well could have gotten out with SK Gaming having Svenskeren on their roster throughout the full event. In fact, when playing against SK Gaming in game 2, TSM was the team that botched the late game teamfight in the enemy base. 

When they faced Samsung White, it was a bloodbath, but by playing their style with confidence, Team SoloMid performed in both game 3 and 4, a surprise for the world to see. Sadly, this is the last TSM was to see of both World Championship success and of Amazing winning with them.     

Season 5 – Santorin, the Green Ward?  

Moving onto North America’s regular season, Santorin has a stellar debut. He plays a handful of carry-oriented jungle champions but can succeed on the Tank picks as well. His main weakness was matched aggression; he lacked results when he played against strong and aggressive junglers. Come MSI 2015, TSM has a disgraceful showing in Tallahassee. His lack of experience shows throughout the entirety of the group stage: he did not understand the side-lane landscape, either composition win-conditions, nor did he respect the enemy team’s course-to-victory in the early game.

Against Fnatic, TSM starts with a weak pick and ban phase and has both sidelanes in non-pushing matchups. Given that there is no real push on sidelanes, Santorin can change his pathing to focus on ganking or counterganking where FNC will focus, in-effect giving his team a winning chance, or do nothing and lose out. In fact, what he does, is positions around mid-lane (TSM Chogath vs. FNC LeBlanc) and gains nothing for his team, whilst his top laner gets dove level 3 (in a very predictable setup). Give Santorin a target and communicate, he can stop this loss from crushing TSM. Put him on autopilot and he will walk towards Bjergsen.

  Now this is one of 6 games Team SoloMid plays at MSI 2015, but what happens here is what will happen to them on the world stage later in the same year. Take out the Besiktas game and Santorin has a 1.3 KDA throughout 5 games. His kill participation is the lowest on his team outside of Dyrus, who was left on an island, and his Gold Differential was the lowest across the board for Team Solomid and the entire tournament’s jungle pool (outside of the Wildcard Team Be?ikta? e-Sports Club’s Theokoles). This is the same tournament where Wildturtle was criticized for being over-aggressive if you recall the “Don’t Flash In!” quote by Reddit, Locodoco and Reginald. 

This event became a standard for TSM. The aggression that one member on TSM pulls out is not communicated and coordinated well, and often the games go sour. On the next attempt, that communication will never be fixed, according to Reginald. I will skip over most of Summer split as it was just Santorin utilizing Rek’Sai and winning, then in the final weeks of the season TSM loses most of their games. Santorin is playing a lot of Gragas and only beating TDK and NME, both of which were relegated... A terrible memory for most North American fans, especially those of TSM. 

Come playoffs, Team Solomid trudges through Gravity and Team Liquid utilizing carry-oriented Jungle champions (such as Nidalee or Ekko) and going 3-1 against both Teams., until they were stopped and justly pub-stomped by CLG. Until they faced CLG, Wildturtle and Bjergsen could carry and open space for Santorin to play aggressively, a strong laning phase that is lacking against even or better opponents. With Dyrus getting very little support throughout MSI, the NA Summer Finals, and thereafter, the World Stage, the opposite side of the map cannot lift TSM towards success. Reginald could bring Team SoloMid up to hit the Finals through his leadership of the squad, but Reginald’s League of Legends experience never contained much international success. This is crucial when looking at the squad historically, and in my opinion, is the one constant between every single international failure of TSM.   Hitting the World Championship, they gained one win and had one close match against Origen, but nothing more. Santorin had an awful showing, but so did most of Team SoloMid. He attempted to play Elise but could not have a meaningful impact for nearly all the tournament, often having under 4 total Kill Participation. Now one can say it is due to the lane swap meta, but others had more map presence and aggression with similar champions throughout the tournament, Santorin just had no teeth to bite with. Moving to this style might be due to the team’s focus after their loss in the Summer finals, where the team loses its synchronization and aggression. 

With heads hung low, they leave the stage with one victory on their backs against a weak LGD. The Santorin and Dyrus chapter comes to a close, and a new chapter begins.

TSM moves to change their roster and bring in aggression, communication, experience and leadership in Svenskeren, Doublelift, and Yellowstar. They also bring in a strong top laner in Hauntzer to help bring in a strong solo lane alongside Bjergsen. Reginald’s view on how to build the North American super-team consisted of EU stars and North American veterans. Their expectations were high, their dedication there. The success though, ends with North American trophies and upvoted Reddit threads..

Is leadership the problem? Will changing out Svenskeren help? Is importing another shotcaller going to provide success? Tune in next week for the beginning of the Svenskeren era, where I delve deeper into each split, playoff, and World Championship performance. 

Follow the author at @AlbertPCoh on Twitter for more content.

Image courtesy of Team Solomid