In the latest episode of The Jungle, Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykkles and Christian ‘IWDominate’ Rivera didn’t hold back on discussing TSM’s attitude to player development, and their treatment of new support Wei ‘Shenyi’ Zijie.
TSM’s recent roster moves have been, to say the least, controversial. Their out-of-left-field offseason decision to acquire two relatively untested players from the LPL’s developmental league backfired massively, with the org going 0-4 in the opening two weeks of the LCS.
It was clear that the organization needed a change, but they found that change in the controversial decision to bench Shenyi and bring up academy support Wang ‘Yursan’ Shengyu.
On the latest episode of Dexerto’s ‘The Jungle’, IWDominate slammed the move, explaining that he “didn’t see how this decision would move the team forward.” MonteCristo explained how typical this behavior was for TSM, even going so far as to label it the “TSM jungler treatment.”
“He’s just getting the TSM jungler treatment of the past. You get a player for their specific strengths, you ignore all of those strengths, and then you destroy them.”
Shenyi was famed in the LPL for his aggression and shot-calling ability. Shortly after he was benched, he explained in a live stream how he didn’t feel that the TSM roster trusted his decision-making, and that he felt that the team was not cooperating with him as a support player.
The roster has also had to contend with a language barrier, as neither Shenyi nor Keaiduo speaks particularly strong English.
TSM’s misguided approach
The team quickly fell apart, with Shenyi explaining on a live stream how he didn’t feel that TSM’s players trusted his shot-calling ability. He was moved down to the academy roster after only two weeks on the team’s starting roster, a move IWDominate labeled as “stunting your own growth” for a TSM whose messaging has been all about long-term improvement.
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Damn TSM really sucks
— Christian Rivera (@IWDominate) February 20, 2022
“Not only are you not doing the things that are conducive to actually progressing as a team,” he explained, referencing TSM’s reliance on the enchanter top strategy that has since been patched out of the game, “but you’re not even doing it with the f*cking player that you’re presumably going to be playing with at some point.”
“Their management and their gameplay both suck as hard as is possible at this point in the season.”
From an outside perspective, it can be difficult to see how a plan can backfire as hard as TSM’s developmental roster has backfired for the org. MonteCristo offered his perspective on the decisions that have led to TSM’s rough 2022 start, explaining that “it’s a disaster that the people who made this roster are now no longer even with the org.”
With TSM’s CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh currently under investigation by Riot Games after allegations made about a toxic working environment by former TSM employees, it’s unlikely that he’s currently in communication with the team’s League of Legends roster.
MonteCristo explained that “Regi and Parth, who ostensibly made these roster decisions, are all out of the picture right now.”
“So you’re left with a guy who didn’t make the initial roster decisions, making choices that are only going to shoot them in the foot later on. So what we can infer is that this roster is going to be even worse, somehow, in the future.”
TSM have a lot of work to do if they’re going to turn around their run of bad form in the LCS. They currently sit tied for dead last with CLG, with a 1-5 record after three weeks of competitive play, their worst start to an LCS split in history.
