Following an impressive 2020 debut, Team Liquid’s rookie AD carry Tactical has been named the LCS Rookie of the Year, Riot Games announced.
This season, Tactical had the colossal job of taking over the marksman position on Liquid. There was a ton of pressure on his young shoulders since he was moving into the starting lineup over superstar Doublelift, who decided to join TSM in the League of Legends offseason.
Although there were plenty of expectations for Tactical, he met them with ease with the help of his veteran teammates. During the regular season, he had the fourth-highest KDA in the league with a 30.5 percent team kill share, according to League stats site Oracle’s Elixir. He also had the highest share of his team’s damage among LCS ADCs.
It did take a bit of time for Liquid to ramp up in strength. But in the second half of the season, they picked up their play and managed to snatch first place for the summer with an impressive 15-3 record. In comparison, Liquid finished ninth in the previous split with an abysmal 7-11 record.
Tactical began his competitive career by competing for various amateur organizations between 2016 and 2017, including Team Exile Surge, Relentless Gaming, and Super Nova. In 2018, Tactical rejoined Super Nova and helped lead it to several 1st- and 2nd-place finishes in amateur tournaments such as the Upsurge Premier League and Alienware Game Arena. During this time, he also performed well in solo queue and received an invitation to the 2018 NA Scouting Grounds, where he was drafted onto Team Infernal Drake. His team placed 2nd at the tournament and Tactical was awarded a trophy for being one of the Top 5 Prospects.
At the beginning of the 2019 season, Tactical joined TSM Academy. Although the team had not performed well in the 2018 season, with Tactical and new support Treatz, the team finished 2nd in the regular season and 1st in playoffs. In Summer, the team’s jungler Grig was moved to the main roster and Spica was brought on to replace him. Additionally, Tactical split play time with trainee bot laner Johnsun, who replaced Tactical in four regular season games. The team struggled to replicate its Spring success and finished the regular season in 4th place. In playoffs, the team underwent more roster changes as top laner Brandini was benched for disciplinary reasons and Grig swapped roles to replace him. Additionally, in the middle of playoffs Spica was moved to the main roster and Akaadian was moved to academy due to jungler problems on the main team. The team was eliminated in the semifinals.
