2023 LCS Summer Split Preview: TSM

TSM brings two of its legendary players back for what might be the org’s final split in the LCS.

After spending a decade as one of the most successful organizations in the North American League of Legends, TSM has been going through some rough times in the last two years. Possible financial struggles combined with a lack of international success playing in LCS led to the organization making a decision to exit the league completely, in order to play in another major region with the goal of winning Worlds.

#TSM LCS update pic.twitter.com/V4E45qg87s

— TSM #TSM100 (@TSM) May 20, 2023

Whatever the future holds for TSM and its fans, the org at the very least still needs to play out the rest of the Summer Split. Unfortunately, they aren’t coming out of the best Spring they had. TSM had a lot of turnover last split, Toàn “Neo” Trần and Colin “Solo” Earnest both got benched during the regular season for TSM legends Jason “WildTurtle” Tran and Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell. The WildTurtle move gave them a small boost of performance at least, but in the end, they still missed the playoffs.

TSM LCS Roster for the 2023 Summer

• Top lane: Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell
• Jungle: Lee “Bugi” Seong-yeop
• Mid lane: Lee “Ruby” Sol-min
• AD Carry: Jason “WildTurtle” Tran
• Support: Jonathan “Chime” Pomponio

Announcing our Summer Split #LCS starting roster. pic.twitter.com/e5oxxTBwpR

— TSM #TSM100 (@TSM) May 23, 2023

TSM kept four out of five players from the last split’s roster, which should bring some stability to the Summer. But unfortunately, the player they lost was arguably the best performing one on the team, Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang. To replace Maple, TSM signed Lee “Ruby” Sol-min from LEC’s Team Heretics, which looks like a very risky move.

Ruby’s two splits with Heretics weren’t exactly the best resume builder. After an early Group Stage exit in Winter, the Spanish org completely fell flat and missed the playoffs in Spring, and the Korean mid laner’s bad performances played a big part in the situation. It remains to be seen if Ruby can level up his form in NA, but at least TSM has a backup plan as they also brought in another mid laner Kim “Fenix” Jae-hun, a name familiar to long-time LCS fans.

It’s hard to know from the rest of this roster as well. The jungle-support duo of Bugi/Chime showed some good synergy playing together, but even that link depends a lot on the rest of the players’ performances. Hauntzer and WildTurtle are storied players and both had a decent Spring, but it has been a while since either of them truly carried a team to a deep playoff run.

TSM’s seventh-place finish in Spring was somewhat due to Dignitas and Team Liquid completely dropping the ball. If these two teams can pick it up and play to the level of their rosters, they have a decent talent advantage over TSM. it will help that eight teams will make playoffs in the Summer Split, but even if TSM makes it to the postseason, it might be hard for them to end their possibly last-ever split in the LCS with a bang.

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