Although TSM had a rough start to the 2020 League of Legends Summer Split this week, the team has finally put up a notch in the win column with a decisive victory over Team Dignitas today.
TSM’s decision making and teamfighting looked cleaner compared to yesterday’s match against Team Liquid, especially with the team’s new jungler, Mingyi “Spica” Lu. The 19-year-old had a suboptimal performance for his inaugural match of the summer, but this time around, he locked in and did his job to secure the win.
BACK ON TRACK! #TSMWIN pic.twitter.com/MINNA5BGva
— TSM Report (@tsmreport) June 14, 2020
“I think I played pretty well today, and I was able to have a lot of impact on the early game,” Spica told Dot Esports. “Yesterday, I don’t think my pick was impactful, so it’s kind of hard to showcase. Of course, we can always play better. We still have things like communication and synergy—we’re still working on that, but I think this week was a start.”
TSM are currently coming off of the longest championship drought in its history, having reached the LCS finals only once in the last five splits. Disappointment has constantly reared its ugly head for this organization, but Spica said that the whole team understands that the race to the top of the mountain is a marathon—not a sprint.
“I don’t think we’re the best team right now, but I think we are slowly improving,” Spica said. “We have a lot of things that we’re working on, and we know what we need to work on. So, I think the split will start off slow, but I think towards playoffs, we will just ramp up and become a really good team.”
Spica also talked about the general mindset of the team and their expectations for the season. He said that even though they know it’ll take time, the aim is still to be the best team in North America again.
“I think the general mindset is that we’re a new team, so we’re just going to slowly improve,” Spica said. “And then at the end of the split we’ll be like, top three. I think that everybody’s expectation will be us challenging whoever for playoffs.”
The young jungler also had some high praise for superstar AD carry Doublelift, who recently re-joined TSM after a lackluster end to his time with Liquid last split. Spica specifically mentioned how his “commanding voice, both in-game and out of game” has helped him learn new perspectives towards the game and his playstyle.
