TSM’s Bjergsen steps away from playing, becomes new head coach

Team SoloMid‘s longtime mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg has officially retired as a professional player. 

Bjergsen has been the face of TSM for many years and solidified himself as one of the greatest players in LCS history. He has been playing professionally since he turned 17 in 2013, but will now exit Summoner’s Rift and act as TSM’s new head coach after playing for the team for seven years.

The announcement comes as a shock to fans after Bjergsen had an impressive summer split. Together with the rest of TSM, he won his first domestic trophy in three years and made it to the 2020 League of Legends World Championship as the LCS’ first seed. Bjergsen led his team through summer with a lot of great performances and ended up as the MVP runner-up behind Team Liquid‘s Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in. 

TSM’s performance at Worlds 2020 didn’t turn out as expected though,  going 0-6 in the group stage. TSM came into the tournament with high expectations, but didn’t manage to perform when it mattered. 

Bjergsen has won a total of six LCS trophies and four MVP titles. He has also competed at Worlds five times, but never managed to make the deep run that many fans had hoped for. He will likely be remembered as one of the greatest players to ever play in North America. 

Bjergsen retires, becomes new TSM head coach after Worlds 2020 flop

Even though Bjergsen retired as a player, he will still play a big role for TSM. The Dane will act as the new head coach going into the 2021 season, a role that will be completely new for him. Bjergsen has been the in-game leader for TSM in recent years, so transitioning to a head coach role should come naturally to him. Parth Naidu has been acting as the head coach up until now and will likely remain with TSM in some capacity. 

The sudden announcement leaves the mid lane position open for TSM going into the offseason. The player free agency window begins on November 16, so it probably won’t be long before TSM announces its new mid laner. Who the mid laner might be is still unknown, but there will be several prominent names up for grabs. 

Cloud9 mid laner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer has recently been rumored to leave C9, so he could be one of many possible options.