With the recent announcement that Tony “Zikz” Gray will be joining TSM as their new coach, fans have something to look forward to. Will Zikz be the one to fix TSM’s glaring mistakes? Will TSM be able to return to the top of the region or even reach the finals once again? These questions and more surround Zikz and what he’ll be able to accomplish with this roster. But for now, let’s take a look at Zikz as a coach and how he might help this roster improve.

Decision-making and objective control

One key aspect of TSM’s play that is criticized is their decision-making and general objective control at  parts of the game. Either the team was doing nothing early, or made terrible decisions later on in the game.

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This should change with Zikz now at the helm and preparing the team for the upcoming season. During his long stay with CLG, Zikz was often praised for many things. One of them being his smart approach to the game. This is further shown through his drafts and his team’s overall game plans. With a talented roster with deep champion pools, Zikz will be able to draft some amazing team comps. On top of that he’ll be able to get the most out of his players’ strengths. As a result we’ll likely see top laner Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell on more tanks and bruisers. Meanwhile, we could see mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg on more powerful carry champs like Akali and Leblanc.

Along with that we’ll hopefully see some great plays around the map from TSM to complement the spectacular mechanics of their players. This improvement in map play could be all that’s needed to move this team back up to the top.

Overall leadership

Another criticism that’s often mentioned regarding TSM is that their coaches often lacked the leadership to properly lead the team and control them. As a result we’ve often seen owner Andy “Reginald” Dinh or former coach Parth Naidu in recent examples taking over and leading the team. But with Zikz coming in, TSM have a coach that not only has the respect of Reginald and Parth, but also has the respect of players around the league.

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Hopefully with Zikz taking over this team, he’ll be able to accomplish what great coaches like Kim “SSONG” Sang-soo and Choi “Locodoco” Yoon-seop were unable to do. He’ll be able to take control of the team and control them. What will further help him is if Zikz is able to build a good relationship with Bjergsen. If he’s able to do so, the leadership of the team can be as solid as it was on CLG through Zikz and Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black.

If Zikz can accomplish this and have the trust of the team, TSM could become a truly frightening group. However, if Zikz can’t get through to this team and Parth or Reginald has to step in once again, we could be looking at another coaching change very soon.

Conclusion

While there has been some controversy regarding the addition of Zikz, he has come out with his own statement and has shown that any issues he had with joining the team are now gone. Now fans of the team must move beyond that and look ahead to the bright future the team now has with Zikz leading it. While they’ll still have to compete against some amazing teams to reach the top of North America again, the future looks bright. And to quote an old CLG saying for the fans of TSM, “If you have no faith, why are you guys even here?”

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Featured image courtesy of TSM

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