In what will be his first LCS appearance in over 2 years, Kevin ‘Hauntzer’ Yarnell has been subbed in for TSM over Solo during their last 2 games of the split. This news comes a short time after WildTurtle got pulled up to TSM’s LCS roster.
TSM was a team that many rated as one of the worst in the LCS at the start of the season, but a strong mid/jungle presence out of Lee ‘Bugi’ Seong-yeop and Huang ‘Maple’ Yi-Tang combined with WildTurtle’s stellar performance after getting subbed in has certainly helped them out.
Just two weeks after Jason ‘WildTurtle’ Tran got pulled up to the LCS roster, Hauntzer has been announced to be starting over Colin ‘Solo’ Earnest in a last-minute substitution in the middle of super week. There was a good deal of controversy after TSM’s NACL roster announcement, but we now see why they decided to sign veteran players to the Challenger’s League.
It’s hard to say just how well he’ll do, but this roster puts together some of the components that were around during an older, better time for TSM.
Haunzter makes his first LCS appearance since 2020
Solo had a rough game on the first day of the second super week against 100 Thieves. He got repeatedly beaten down by Tenacity in-lane and had a hard time staying alive in teamfights, something that may have ultimately lost TSM the game.
Though Solo was happy to be starting in the LCS this year and it’s something he wanted to do after a strong end to 2022, he ultimately won’t be finishing out the split on the team with Hauntzer stepping in last-minute.
It’s hard to say what went on internally for this last-minute substitution to go through, but it’s certainly unusual to swap a team member out on such short notice during a crucial time.
That said, Hauntzer is a player with a wealth of experience in the LCS even if it’s been a while since he’s been on stage. His stint on TSM from 2016-2018 was a time of great domestic success for the organization, and he’ll certainly be looking to show a similarly strong performance during his comeback tour on the LCS team.
This, along with WildTurtle getting promoted into the LCS over Toàn ‘Neo’ Trần through the split, has made this an incredibly turbulent split for the organization that has resulted in them bringing back some longtime legends from days gone.
Now the pressure is on for TSM to perform with their newly bolstered roster and make that final push for getting into the playoffs.
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