TSM FTX is bringing two developing Chinese players on board to complete their lineup for next year., jam-packing their new lineup with explosive power.
The wait is over for TSM FTX fans, as the organization announces its starting roster for 2022 at long last. Three of the five members were known before now, though the last two pieces of the puzzle evaded us until today. After a month-long scouting combine in Korea, they've found their new support and mid laner.
This is the full TSM roster for 2022:
- Top: Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon
- Jungle: Mingyi "Spica" Lu
- Mid: Zhu "Keaiduo" Xiong
- ADC: Edward "Tactical" Ra
- Support: Wei "Shenyi" Zi-Jie
The two returning members from 2021 are of course Huni and Spica. The two had a pretty good season after all, and are promising players in their own ways. Huni boasts a long career with incredible stints on teams like Fnatic and Immortals. With a personality fans around the world love and a high skill ceiling, he's the total package.
Meanwhile, Spica is relatively newer to the league, though he quickly rose to the top and gained a ton of fans due to maybe unexpected, but wholly welcome performances. Especially after his Worlds debut in 2020, where he had great performances in spite of TSM's 0-6 record. More recently, he delivered that same quality of gameplay in the 2021 Summer Split too, which allowed him to be named the 2021 Summer Honda LCS MVP.
Despite all that, they narrowly missed out on attending either splits' final and the World Championship this year. For them, and an organization such as TSM, this means failure. So big changes were expected to happen, and happen they did.
TSM taking chances on developing players in 2022
TSM FTX's first step in this offseason was to sign Tactical, who comes back to the squad after departing Team Liquid. Like some of his other new teammates, he's a fresher face in the LCS. After playing in Academy for a few years, Tactical made his LCS debut in 2020 as TL struggled at the bottom of the standings. Since then, he's proven himself as a top-tier AD Carry, stepped on the Worlds stage and become a fan-favorite in the region.
Finally, as mentioned before, TSM FTX held a scouting combine in Korea to find players from China or Korea this offseason. It seems to have paid off, as they signed Keaiduo and Shenyi as a result of it. Coincidentally, both are coming from the LDL, the Chinese developmental league, and have a ton of potential.
First up is mid laner Keaiduo. He joins the TSM 2022 roster after a single year of semi-pro play with ThunderTalk Gaming Young. While TT Young didn't have that good of a 2021 season, his true potential must've shown through in the scouting combine. On TT Young, Keaiduo showed off his veritable champion ocean, playing everything from control mages to assassins to supportive picks.
Last but not least is Shenyi, coming to TSM from FunPlus Phoenix and FunPlus Phoenix Blaze. With FPX Blaze, Shenyi found a good deal of success, placing high in multiple splits and playoffs. Unlike Keaiduo, he has experience at the highest level of play too, playing a few matches with the main team and having a couple of pop-off games.
There is a lot of potential in this new TSM 2022 roster, though a lot of question marks as well. Bringing in two developmental players is a risk in its own but one that can have huge payoffs, as we've seen time and time again. With so many younger players and a sometimes coin-flippy Huni, consistency could be a problem for the squad. However, the explosiveness these five players could have shouldn't be underestimated when the 2022 season starts!