Mike Yeung on why TSM played Grig over him: “It just wasn’t really a good fit”

Mike Yeung, TSM’s Academy jungler, former starter, and Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen’s replacement, revealed why he was moved to the team’s bench on his Twitch channel yesterday. His style just didn’t mesh well with the rest of the roster, according to him, and that certainly makes sense.

TSM just wrapped up the worst year in the team’s NA LCS career with a loss to Cloud9 in the regional gauntlet yesterday. They went from winning three LCS titles in a row and making an appearance at every single Worlds to failing to even make finals for both splits this year and ultimately missing out on Worlds, too.

Needless to say, the fans have some questions, and one of those questions is “what happened to Mike Yeung?” The young player made his debut last season for Phoenix1, crushed EU at Rift Rivals, and had a couple of standout moments throughout the remainder of the season before TSM picked him up post-Worlds 2017. He was filling some very big shoes by replacing Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, and TSM fans were hyped up about his arrival.

After the former champions struggled so much during the Spring Split, he was subbed out for Jonathan “Grig” Armao and seemingly disappeared from the starting lineup for the rest of 2018. Now, after the very end of TSM’s unsuccessful 2018 season, he’s apparently ready to share some information with his fans.

There’s probably more behind-the-scenes involvement with his subbing for Grig—it’s impossible to know without being personally included in the situation, but the reason Yeung shared is definitely plausible. He’s an aggressive jungler, and his best, most memorable games included him diving into the enemy, out-playing three people, and then escaping by the skin of his teeth using his stellar mechanics. TSM just doesn’t have room for an aggressive jungler, because there are three extremely well-known carries in the top lane, mid lane, and bot lane. What TSM needed was a support in a jungle role, not a play-maker, and that’s what Grig was this year.

Of course, that didn’t help TSM much because they ultimately didn’t make the cut anyway, but it still makes sense. Hopefully for Mike Yeung, he’ll be able to find a team in the future that enables him to play to his own style.