LCS Spring 2022 Update: TSM Misses First Ever Playoffs

Team SoloMid is known for being one of North America’s top League of Legends organizations, with its rich history of being both the Kings of the LCS and oftentimes the meme that everyone wants to make fun of. Despite all their clownery, TSM FTX was the most consistent team in this region since it never failed to qualify for playoffs even at their lowest point. However, the LCS Spring 2022 ended that run as they experience their first time being unable to qualify.

LCS Spring 2022 Regular Season

The LCS Spring 2022 regular season was a roller coaster of emotion, mostly because we saw the most disappointing League of Legends this region has ever produced as a major region. Sure, we like to meme on the LCS for being… well, the LCS but this time around they truly feel like they’ve completed their fall from grace. The region hasn’t performed well, despite having so many foreign talent to fill the rosters.

As the season progressed, many teams looked good but there are even more who looked worse than their performance the previous year. While it may be good that not one team is dominating the region, it also stands that they are completely underperforming as a whole. The appearance of foreign talent from the LEC has definitely shown that NA simply can’t stand on its own when it comes to producing competitive rosters.

TSM FTX’s Controversial Season

TSM FTX probably had the worst year in history, both in terms of performance and overall org reputation. The season began with Doublelift calling out TSM FTX owner, Andy “Reginald” Dinh, for being a bully to the staff and players. This controversy only snowballed when the LCS association decided to investigate TSM FTX for these allegations. To make things worse, TSM’s central figure – Bjergsen – decided to leave the org to play for Team Liquid.

TSM also faced several roster reshuffles, with their support Shenyi going on social media to express his difficulties with the team. The foreign talent in the team was constantly being replaced, as a desperate attempt to improve their performance (which didn’t happen). Towards the end of the season, TSM’s head coach was let go due to allegations of the individual owing thousands of dollars to the players and not paying it back.

Why TSM FTX didn’t make Playoffs

TSM FTX failed to qualify for the first time since the organization joined the LCS. However, the premise of their failure is very confusing and sad at the same time because it was mostly due to the fact that the organization was in disarray throughout almost the entirety of the season. A disorganized organization can affect the team and individual players because it affects their morale, training schedule, and motivation to win.

LCS Spring 2022 ended with TSM being tied for last place with both them and Immortals going 5-13 in the regular season. This means that the team will not be able to fight for a chance to qualify for MSI, but most importantly, they will begin the Summer Season with such a horrible score line due to the Esports Format of the LCS. There is a huge chance that TSM will face a major roster revamp at the beginning of the next season.

The LCS Teams

With TSM out of the way, there are still a few familiar names on the list that are vying for the championship. Team Liquid, Cloud9, and 100Thieves are the three teams that had extremely close score lines and performed most consistently throughout the season. We can expect any of these teams making the playoffs but let’s take a look at how they performed individually.

1. Team Liquid

Team Liquid was probably one of the favorites coming into the LCS Spring 2022 regular season because of their star-studded roster. With a team containing names like Bwipo, Bjergsen, Hans Sama, and CoreJJ, it was only to be expected that the team would make it to the top of the rankings and get the chance to take home the trophy once again for the organization as the most dominant team in the LCS for the past years.

In terms of LCS teams, this team had the best performance and there’s no doubt that they will perform well if they were to represent the region at MSI. The team may have received a lot of criticism due to the almost fully foreign talent team on the roster, but they shrugged it off and simply bulldozed their way to the top of the standings at 14-4, with some losses only to the top 6 teams.

2. Cloud9

Cloud9 also had a pretty controversial season after the organization decided to let go of their coach – LS – after only two weeks in the region. The team mostly comprised of Korean players, with Summit being the biggest catch since he’s considered one of the best top laners in the LCK. With their roster, it was only expected that they would make it to the top cut of the tournament even though they experienced some difficulties.

The biggest challenge that this team experienced is communication issues, but with a roster of 3 out of 5 Koreans, they would’ve probably found a way to make it work. While the sudden shake up of coaches disoriented the team after the second week, they eventually found their footing and looked to continue their winning streak towards the rest of the season.

3. 100 Thieves

The defending LCS champions managed to make it back to the playoffs. Which is probably expected since they decided to retain their previous roster to improve communication and build their teamplay even more. However, the team didn’t seem to be able to adjust well to the meta so they had their ups and downs in the tournament, which didn’t become too much of a problem since they had amazing teamplay.

100 Thieves may have placed 3rd in the LCS Spring 2022 regular season but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a contender for the championship. Between the three teams that we’ve mentioned, there’s no telling who might make it out on top when they finally move on to the best-of-3 format. However, we hope that they show a better performance than the one they had during the regular season.