In a March 2021, Yiliang “Peter” “Doublelift” Peng and William “Meteos” Hartman would take to their respective livestreams to provide insight into that day’s LCS match-up. What was expected to be a competitive match-up between Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses would quickly fall into the favor of Team Liquid after an excellent skirmish at herald. While Team Liquid would win the game in 34 minutes and with control for most of the game, the game would be known for one specific moment.
At 31:25, Tactical would look to make the critical pick for Team Liquid to get an uncontested baron. Believing he had caught out Evil Geniuses’ mid laner, he makes the aggressive play. However, a misread on the situation allowed Evil Geniuses to punish, securing a valuable shutdown onto Team Liquid’s marksman. More importantly, we would get the famous screech from Doublelift.
It was the second blunder of the game from Tactical, the first lesser remembered moment being at 21:00 where he does not expect the collapse from Evil Geniuses’ jungler. Yet the memorable reaction and the following criticism from Doublelift would dramatically change the reputation of Tactical. His positioning blunders — of which there would be of plenty — would instantly become a point of conversation, often times used as the scapegoat for a loss. Despite the moments of brilliance he would have, all that would be mentioned would be his errors.
Life moves pretty fast.
Just over a year later, Tactical finds himself returning to TSM Academy, the team where he would solidify his status as a top prospect in 2019 and early 2020. Now recognized as a veteran, it is easy to forget that the 21 year old still finds himself within the typical age range of academy prospects — whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is a different conversation.
With just over two years of experience in the majors, he returns to an environment where he can focus on improving his craft. But referring back to his time in the pros, what does that really entail?
We’ve seen three different versions of Tactical:
Version 1: Tactical the Carry
Version 2: Tactical the Exiled
Version 3: Tactical the “Trapped on TSM”
Remembering what worked on Team Liquid appears to be a lost conversation.
His time on Team SoloMid was a lost cause. A terrible team conception compounded with skill discrepancies created what was arguably one of the most perplexing team situations in LCS history. And somehow, they weren’t the worst team in 2022 Spring.
Arguably, TSM had no vision for what they were looking to accomplish with their bottom lane. Despite being brought in partially due to his friendship with Mingyi “Spica” Lu, Spica has never played through the bottom lane. He is much more reliant on synergy with his mid-laner — a huge reason why the signing of Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang was so valuable for the team.
With a new support in the summer split and a reinvigorated early game from TSM, there was potential with Tactical becoming one of the best laning marksmen in the LCS. Taking advantage of three games against a Senna, Tactical would average the second highest gold difference at ten minutes (+247) along with a 43% first blood participation percentage — both the highest in his professional career.
But those damn positioning blunders.
The assistant general manager for TSM, Yang “Glen” Po-Jen, would announce in a Reddit statement that Tactical would be benched for “ongoing performance and personal issues.” A 1.7 KDA, 422 damage per minute wasn’t enough. Compounded with several blunders in team fights and a potentially better chemistry fit with new substitutions, it is tough to overlook as TSM was making progress. It was an understandable adjustment and a welcomed adjustment for a team not in a position to make it to Worlds in their current form.
Team Liquid Tactical displayed similar weaknesses but was much more protected. This has been a point of conversation — with some interpreting this as “Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in carried Tactical.” It does not hurt to have a world class support playing in his prime as your support. But the argument can also go both ways. He was still doing so much as a marksmen.
In his “carry” version, Tactical was a mechanical beast, able to display his prowess on champions like Samira and Twitch. If a team puts a carry in a position to carry and he does, is that really a bad thing?
And when Team Liquid would push him towards pushing the side lanes solo on champions like Ziggs while CoreJJ influences the map, he became the safe player fans were begging for. However, this would only be a niche style of play for Tactical — primarily coming about in the 2021 LCS Championship tournament.
There’s a lot to point out when it comes to critiques. How he has a negative win-rate on Ezreal (47.1%) despite it being the most played champion of his entire career (34). How a meta can dramatically impact his ability to execute — with signature champions like Twitch, Samira, Kalista often times falling out of the meta. And the ugly statistic: he’s been in the top two of most deaths among marksmen in the past three splits.
But the upside never gets its deserving attention: how he’s been able to put up some of the best damage per minute numbers among marksmen, how his aggression can completely change the dynamic of events.
In an era where the community, pundits and players protects likeable talent for any given reasons to disguise the fact that they are underperforming, Tactical has a ton of legitimate excuses that seemingly have been pushed aside. He’s been in some of the most perplexing team situations: Doublelift quitting on Team Liquid, Joshua “Jatt” Leesman exiting Team Liquid and the current mess plaguing TSM. But for the first time in his career, he’s truly getting burned by it.
…
His return to the academy stage has seemingly confirmed the criticisms set forth for him. Yet it is also very easy to forget just how much turmoil TSM’s farm system has been in. The team prior roster adjustments appeared to be the worst team in North America. And despite some veterans being added, adjusting mid split takes time. TSM Academy currently have the worst record and a dreadful map record of 4-6 with their new roster
The demotion has clearly taken its mental toll. Since moving down, his activity on social media has decreased along with a decrease in his streaming schedule. How players react to being benched is important but how an organization breaks the news and puts a player in the best position to improve is even more important. TSM still figuring out their ways in this area however the damage to Tactical is evident.
He likely will not be returning to TSM in the offseason but it doesn’t necessarily mean another team shouldn’t take interest in his services. It is easy to forget that just a short while ago, he was on the pathway to become one of North America’s premier talents. It is easy to forget that the concept of pairing Spica and him together was going to be TSM’s future to build from.
Time moves very quickly in esports. Opinions change rapidly and your reputation can change within a blink of an eye. For young talent, it is a difficult journey and in a space that continues to struggle with the concept of talent development, it can feel impossible to overcome.
Tactical remains one of the most polarizing players in North America. To some, he is an incredible player limited by mental lapses. To others, he’s the player that was carried on Team Liquid and no longer a talent worth investing in.
His current time in academy shouldn’t be an indication of his future. Rather, it should be the starting point when it comes to talking about how to re-build talent. Tactical has become of the biggest cases of a player being broken by dysfunctions in a system but he isn’t the first nor is he the last. Unfortunately for his resume, he’s being put in the spotlight given the notoriety of TSM. How he responds and where he goes to next could be the saving grace his reputation needs.
Or, it could be another example of North America’s short attention span when it comes to talent.