After TSM’s recent failure in the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs, many pundits have brought up familiar criticisms about the team and its players. Origen analyst Jack “Kayys” Kaiser, for example, said that Bjergsen’s style of play is outdated for how the meta has evolved over the past couple of years.
“Bjergsen’s style of play is outdated. He doesn’t move off mid fast enough,” Kayys said on the Summoning Insight podcast with Montecristo and Thorin. “He’s not moving to fights at a quick enough pace, and it doesn’t make sense to have a player like Dardoch and not play like that.”
The experienced analyst also said that because of Bjergsen’s slower pace, TSM aren’t using their jungle-mid combination as optimally as they could. He brought up Cloud9 as an example and how fluid Nisqy and Blaber work together as a duo when roaming.
When looking at Nisqy—who’s been an essential part of C9’s rampant success this spring—the 21-year-old actually has the lowest creep score per minute of any LCS mid laner, as well as the lowest CS share percentage post-15 minutes and the lowest team gold share.
These numbers, however, reflect how willing he is to leave his lane to help his other lanes get ahead. Combined with Blaber’s incredible improvements in pathing, decision-making, and overall game sense, C9 have looked head and shoulders above the competition this spring.
Bjergsen is still one of the best mid laners in the LCS, but it’s clear that something needs to change soon. TSM are still passive when it comes to pushing the tempo or a lead further, which has been a problem for the organization for a while now.
They’ll need to regroup for the 2020 Summer Split, where they’ll try to qualify for Worlds for the first time since 2017.
