TSM fans urge org to bring Insanity back for LCS Summer
Stefan Wisnoski/Riot GamesA significant number of TSM fans have called on the organization to drop Ruby and bring Insanity back for the remainder of LCS Summer.
TSM slumped to a 3-5 record in the LCS Summer Split on June 29 after losing to Dignitas — their second defeat in a row after bringing Lee ‘Ruby’ Sol-min into the starting lineup.
The Korean mid laner, signed from Heretics in the off-season, missed the first two weeks of action after arriving late in Los Angeles due to visa issues. In his absence, the team fielded David ‘Insanity’ Challe, TSM’s first North American mid laner since Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh.
TSM exceeded expectations during the first two weeks of the split as they went 3-3, beating FlyQuest, Immortals, and NRG, while picking up losses to Team Liquid, Cloud9, and Golden Guardians.
With the team dropping down to sixth in the standings after the back-to-back losses, many fans have called on TSM to walk back on the decision to start Ruby, arguing that the team has looked worse with the Korean player.
“The team clearly plays worse without Insanity so it’s time to get him back in,” a user wrote on TSM’s official subreddit. “Please don’t have some stupid sunk cost fallacy or stubbornness to force Ruby to work. Thank you.”
“Team fighting looks so much worse with Ruby,” another user wrote.
“Please put Insanity back in and let Ruby scrim more with the team, that was hard to watch,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
Ruby’s rough start with TSM
TSM’s fans have been skeptical of Ruby’s signing after he struggled with Heretics, who placed eighth in the LEC Winter split and ninth in the Spring split.
Against Evil Geniuses and Dignitas, he has been criticized for arriving late to team fights and looking out of tune with the rest of the squad, which can be attributed to his lack of scrim time with the roster.
Peter Dun, Ruby’s coach at Heretics, has argued that pinning the June 28 loss to Evil Geniuses on the Korean is unfair. Still, he has said multiple times that TSM should not have removed Insanity from the starting lineup.
“Let’s be honest, there’s no way TSM should sub him [Ruby] in when Insanity (and TSM around him) are playing like this,” he wrote on Twitter.
On a June 29 episode of ‘Facecheck’, popular League streamer and former professional player Christian ‘IWillDominate’ Rivera urged LCS teams to stop importing players like Ruby.
“It’s one of the things that trigger me the most in the LCS recently,” he said. “We’ve got to stop importing players who are bottom tier in other regions. Also, I don’t think the LEC is that much better than the LCS right now.
“If he’s doing that poorly in a comparable region, why would he suddenly come to NA and be good for you?”
TSM will take on 100 Thieves, who also have a 3-5 record, at 5 PM PT/ 8 PM ET in their final match of the week.