LoL: America’s Best Player Returns, Gathers 4 Top Players – But He Fails: “My Fault”
Dane Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg (26) is considered the tallest League of Legends player America has ever produced. From 2013 to 2019 he played for the US team SoloMid and became champion 6 times. Then he retired from LoL, worked as a coach for TSM. In November 2021 he returned and wanted to show off again with a super team. But the “Team Liquid” project has failed for the time being, the dream of the Worlds 2022 has not come true.
Who is Bjergsen?
- The Dane Bjergsen is probably the most popular western LoL player ever: he has 1.3 million followers on Twitter. On Sept. 7, a panel of experts voted him “the best player in the history of the LCS” (via twitter).
- His story is legendary: growing up in Denmark, he was an unhappy boy struggling with depression, played LoL with a group of friends, moved to the faraway USA in 2013 and over the years has become a super-popular star in League of Legends.
- His sporting life was inseparable from Team SoloMid, he was the franchise player of the huge LoL team. He has won 6 championships. Internationally, however, things never went so well: After a messed up Worlds 2019, he ended his professional career at the age of 24. In 2020 he then trained TSM.
Bjergsen is an absolute star in LoL in the West:
Team Liquid buys Bjergsen a super team together
That was the plan: At the end of 2021 it became clear: the Dane wants to know again. But despite all the efforts of TSM boss Reginald, they could no longer keep him at Team SoloMid, Bjergsen was drawn to “Team Liquid”.
There he supplanted his compatriot “Jensen” and a strong team was bought for him:
- The Belgian top laner Bwipo (25) came extra from Fnatic – that’s when the team crashed after difficult worlds
- An experienced player played in the jungle with the Dane Santorin (25).
- The up-and-coming Frenchman Hans Sama (23) should do it on the botlane. He came from top European team Rogue
- “CoreJJ” (28) was also on the team: the South Korean support player has long been considered one of the best support players in the USA
Bjergsen competes with the oldest team in the league – competition is 4 years younger
What did you notice? Team Liquid had 4 Europeans and 1 South Korean under contract, all experienced players with big names. No one on the team was born in North America, and by LoL standards, the team was pretty old:
- In December 2021, the average age at Team Liquid was 24 – it was the oldest team in the league
- Competing teams like Evil Geniuses were on average 3.6 years younger – and relied on young North Americans. EG was the antidote to Team Liquid.
It was clear: Team Liquid should play for the championship, maybe even save the USA’s honor at the Worlds.
The team was really not made for the future.
Team fails 2nd time to Evil Geniuses, a team 4 years younger
How did it go then?? At first everything went well. The team was able to clearly win the regular season of the LCS with 14-4 in the spring. But in the playoffs the worm was in there:
But that was just spring, which doesn’t really count in LoL. I’m sure things would get better in the summer, right? The opposite was the case.
LoL: A German becomes champion in the USA – but the one that hardly anyone expected
In the league it was only enough for 3rd place. The “young teams”, 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses won the regular time.
The playoffs were just like spring:
- First you lost against 100 Thieves 3-2,
- then you had to admit defeat to Evil Geniuses 3-2. While Team Liquid managed to largely eliminate EG’s star player, ADC Danny, it wasn’t enough. Top laner Impact and mid laner Jojopyun were able to turn the games around
Both times, the “super team” failed because of the same two teams. Bjergsen’s dream at Worlds 2022 is over for now.
Good players, but difficult teamwork
What was it? The team lacked consistency from the start. Once they wiped out top teams of the LCS in passing, then again they messed up games against supposedly easy competitors.
In an interview with Dexerto, jungler Santorin explains that you felt how high the expectations of the super team were:
“You can definitely feel the pressure. You are expected to win the whole thing and be a super team and crush everyone. And I think those expectations put the team in a position where you meet the expectations or you don’t.”
According to Santorini, the individual players are extremely good, but it just doesn’t work well as a team.
Supporter CoreJJ said in an interview with Inven on August 9th that it would be difficult to build teamwork because all 5 players would have a different perspective on the game.
Bjergsen ended the season on Twitter with the words: “My fault. Disappointing year for us.”
That’s behind it: There really seems to be a lesson from the current season that “bought together” teams of star players don’t work in LoL, but that it’s hugely important that teams have a hierarchy and follow a shared vision of how they view LoL and want to play together.
Like Bjergsen in the US, star player in Europe Perkz has failed with the idea of assembling a “super team” around them:
LoL: Super Team Screws Up 95% Chance To Make Playoffs – Star Player Verdict: “Embarrassing, Shocking, Disappointing”
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